Sunlight
by STLHero
Summary: FemNaru. AU.One tiny mistake with her hand seal shouldn't have sent her to a different country. It shouldn't have sent her to a country, where shinobi did not exist and a country where superheroes did. Of course, the Academy would never teach her this. It was okay for Naruto. She found a place where she was accepted.
1. Chapter 1

Naruto was only twelve when she found herself in a country that was so different from her own.

It just took one tiny mistake in her handseal, just one tiny misposition was all Naruto needed for her to find herself in a whole different country. This just tiny mistake was all she needed for her to find herself in a whole different path than she imagined herself to have. If she could have the power to see the future, she would have never stole the Forbidden Scroll. She just wanted pass the graduation exam so badly, to be in the same team as Hinata-chan but she wouldn't take the risk of being in a whole different country.

She wanted to be a shinobi and become Hokage so badly. The desire to have everyone's acknowledgment meant the world to her but Naruto didn't want it, if it meant she was in a whole different world.

It was all Mizuki's fault she was in this mess. No, it was her fault for listening to the teacher that hated her instead of running to the Hokage to confirm if there was some truth or even going to Iruka-sensei about it.

_Oh god, the Hokage._

What would he say when he finds out that she stole the forbidden scroll? Was he going to give her one of those disappointed looks and lecture her about how she should use her head? Or would he look at her with sad eyes and tells her that he understands her desire, trying to comfort her. If nothing went wrong with her incident with Mizuki then he would scold her about being so reckless and selfish. _There's a reason that it is called forbidden, Naru-chan._ Looking at her current situation, she understood what the man meant about what just forbidden meant.

How was she going to get herself out of this mess this time? A mischievous smile and some smartass comment to the Hokage or even some puppy dog look that she knew no one could deny her with. It was her secret weapon against trouble.

She slumped her shoulders and tore her eyes away from the ceiling to stare down at the silk blankets around her. She closed her eyes and touched the blankets, marveling at how soft it felt around her fingers. It felt smooth and silky underneath her hands and looked more expensive than any blanket that Naruto could ever afford. _I kinda don't wanna leave this bed._

She shook her head and scanned the room, trying to figure out where she could be. This was definitely not her home since her room definitely had no posters of muscular man with bright blond hair and blue eyes. Her blood turned cold when she saw various books and comics that she had never seen before alongside a machine that she had never seen before.

Where the hell was she was? She was definitely not in Konoha because the buildings looked nothing like her village's buildings alongside with the machine. Naruto knitted her eyebrow and nibbled her bottom lip, hands clenching the blanket. _What country can I be in?_ She grinded her teeth together, wishing she never skipped Geography's class.

The door creaked open, revealing a blond-haired boy around her age alongside another boy that looked like Sasuke but Naruto knew this wasn't Sasuke. The bastard, she knew, was confident and arrogant while the boy hiding behind his friend and looked so nervous at the sight of her. Alongside them was a black-haired man that looked a lot like the blond-haired boy and Naruto wondered if they were brothers.

_They don't look alike._

"You're finally awake," the black-haired man strolled towards her, lips curled into a cheerful smile as the children trailed behind him. He took a seat on the chair right beside her and tilted his head. "How are you, kid? Did you have a good sleep?"

Naruto eyed the friendly man and moved a couple of inches away from him, blue eyes fixated on the warmth that seemed to be radiating from him. Why was he acting so nice with her? What was his game? If he wanted to take some money from her then she didn't have any money on her. She left Gama-chan in the apartment before she went and did her stupid stunt.

The two boys eyed her and the indigo-haired boy seemed fixated on her hair and cheeks, while the blond-haired boy tilted his head and stared at his father.

"Do you understand me?" The man asked, blinking and frowning at the lack of response coming from her.

The blond-haired girl bobbed her head and the black-haired man frowned, slumping his shoulders and knitting his eyebrows together. Did he really think she was going to trust him if he gave her a nice smile and acted warm to her? People weren't that nice to her from their very first meeting. Iruka-sensei ignored her until last year when he had a change of heart.

"Can you tell me what is your name? My name is Togata Kazue," he patted the two boys' head and gave her another warm smile, blue eyes that seemed to radiate with kindness and warmth that Naruto always had to work hard to achieve. "And this blond-haired boy is my son Mirio and that is his friend Tamaki."

Naruto stared at the two boys, head tilted to the side as Mirio offered her an encouraging smile and his friend, Tamaki gave her a timid smile. Blue eyes locked onto them and she nibbled her bottom lip as several thoughts flashed before her mind. Why were they nice to her? And why did Tamaki look like Sasuke? And where was she?

"Uzumaki Naruto." They blinked at her and the blue-eyed girl tore her eyes away from Tamaki, focusing on the kind man that seemed to brighten up at her name.

"That's a nice name." Naruto blinked and eyed the man, who smiled encouragingly at her while Mirio and his friend just stared at her. She looked away and puffed her cheeks, waiting for them to tease about how boyish her name was. It was what all the kids did because they found how a girl like her, could have a boy's name. The boys just glanced at each other.

Naruto looked away from them and stared at the kind man sitting beside her. "Where am I?"

The man blinked and blinked, frowning while the two children gazed at her like they didn't know what to think of her question. What was so weird about her question? She could guess that it was the man's house but what city was she in? Which country? She couldn't tell from just looking out at the country.

"You are in my house." He answered slowly.

Naruto slumped her shoulders. "Yes but is it in Hi no Kuni?"

"Hi no Kuni? I have never heard of that place," he informed her and Naruto felt all the blood in her face draining at this piece of information. Never heard of it? But it was one of the most famous countries in the world? It was powerful because of Konoha. She slumped her shoulders and it felt like a heavy cloud loomed over her.

"H-How did you find me?"

The blond-haired boy bounced and smiled wildly at her. "Tamaki and me found you on our way back home from school."

Naruto darted her eyes towards the indigo-haired boy, who now squeaked and looked away from her. He shifted his whole body around, avoiding her eyes as if she was some kind of monster that might just attack him. _What did I do to him? He is acting like Hinata-chan._ It felt kind of weird to see someone that looked like Sasuke but acts like Hinata-chan.

"Do you remember how you ended up there?" The man asked.

She hesitate and flickered her eyes to the large scroll that laid on the top of the table. If she used the jutsu again then maybe Naruto could return back to Konoha and exposed Mizuki for his lies. _But do you want to go back?_ She blinked at the thought and nibbled her bottom lip, uncertain of why the thought came to her mind. She wanted to become Hokage.

_But they aren't looking at me with hate and the Hokage will be so angry with me when he finds out that I stole the forbidden scroll._ She took a deep breath and shook her head, earning a frown from the man and the children.

"Do you remember your parents at least?"

Naruto hesitate. "I don't have parents. They died when I was a baby."

The man chewed on his bottom lip and the blond-haired girl hunched her shoulders, lips curled into a frown. His son gazed at her, blue eyes fixated on her and his friend stared at her with sympathetic eyes. She turned her head away, lips curled into a frown and the blond-haired boy walked closer to his father.

He tiptoed and tugged on his father's sleeve, whispering something to him. Naruto looked at them, eyebrows knitted together and the blue eyes of the father darted to her. She waited for them to say something and the man bobbed his head at her, letting out a sigh.

"Would you like to stay here with me and my son?"

Naruto jerked her head and the man offered her a bright smile, emulating so much warmth that made her lips wobbled. She bobbed her head because maybe it was stupid of her but she had nowhere to go and her scroll was here.

She just hoped that she made the right decision of agreeing to stay with them.

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourite, follows and everyone that reviewed the last chapter.**

* * *

"_Naruto, are you excited for your first day of school?"_

Naruto looked up from her breakfast, blue eyes growing wide as Kazue flashed her a bright smile and handed her a school uniform. Her fork dropped and she wrinkled her nose at him, lips pressed into a scowl while Mirio laughed at her reaction. If he wanted to laugh then why don't they switch clothes? She could wear pants and he could wear a skirt.

"Do I have to wear a skirt?" Kazue nodded and the blonde slumped her shoulders. He chuckled and shook his head, heading straight to the kitchen to put his own plate back, not even looking back at the blonde that eyed the uniform like it was a gift from hell.

_I hate school even more_. She puffed her cheeks and it earned a rather loud laugh from Mirio. She twisted her head, blue eyes blinking as the boy smiled widely at her. Naruto blinked, uncertain of how this boy could smile and laugh when he didn't know anything about her. The only person who could react like this had been Hinata-chan and they were the best of friends.

She didn't know anything about him.

"You shouldn't be so scared, Naruto!" Naruto blinked at the boy and he smiled widely at her. "You are going to have two friends in school and that will be me and Tamaki!"

She knitted her eyebrows and then smoothed her forehead before flashing him a bright smile that she hoped would fool him into thinking that she was happy about this. He would probably leave her when the other children deemed her not to be cool or if their parents might tell their kids to avoid them. Kazue might be different but her own experience told her different.

"My school is really, really great!" Mirio declared, smiling widely at her. He bounced in his chair and waved his hands as if to tell her just how great school could be. "The teachers are nice, all of my friends are nice and the things we learn are great."

_They might be nice to you but it will be a whole different story for me._ Naruto nibbled her bottom lip, clenched her hands against her shirt and forced herself to smile at him. School had always been a nightmare for her. A terrible nightmare that she was going to relieve again._ No, it will be different this time around._

No one knew her and this was a chance for her to have more friends.

"Naruto, what is your favourite subject?"

She blinked and her fellow blonde beamed. "I like Japanese. What about you?"

"Don't have one." The answer was automatic and Naruto blinked, realizing that there was a great truth behind her words. Mirio nodded and made no comment of asking her to elaborate on why she disliked all subject, instead he flickered his eyes to the television screen where they showed a flaming man battling a couple of people.

He looked kind of cool.

"Is Endeavour your favourite hero?" Naruto tore her eyes away from the television screen and gazed at the smiling boy, who tilted his head at her. Favorite Hero? Her hero had always been the fourth Hokage, someone that she had always strived to beat and surpass but Naruto doesn't think he was talking about that. She nibbled her bottom lip.

"What do you mean?"

Mirio gawked at her and instead of making fun of her, he wrapped his hand around her and brought her straight to the television screen. Her blue eyes drank in the sight of Endeavour, watching him shout and curse as he defeated a couple of bad people. Her lips twitched and she laughed, because it was kind of funny and a part of her thinks that maybe he was cool.

"Do you have heroes in your home?"

Naruto tilted her head, scrunched her eyebrows and pushed her bottom lip back and forth. What would be the correct answer? She guessed being a shinobi was considered being a hero. They helped save people, went to war and they were always respected by everyone from children to even the merchants.

"Yeah but they aren't famous like here," she clenched her hands into a fist and bounced in her spot. She hurled her fist up and down, trying to mimic the hero on the television screen. Her friend (well she guessed they were friends since he didn't insult her and wanted to get to know her) smiled and stared at the hero with admiration.

"I guess you like Endeavour now," Naruto tore her eyes away from the screen and the boy laughed. "My favorite hero is All Might."

"All Might?" The boy bobbed his head up and down before launching into a rather long explanation of who All Might was. Naruto could only blink, bobbing her head up and down as she tried to make sense of how amazing that this hero had to be. _They have an amazing job here_. She chewed on her bottom lip and darted her eyes to Kazue, who smiled at her.

"So being a Hero is an actual job?"

Kazue nodded. "It is a very good job that can pay for a lot of money."

Yen signs appeared in Naruto's eyes and the girl stared at the man like he was her savior for making this comment. Mirio laughed awkwardly and inched away from the girl, almost as if sensing that the girl was going to act like a tornado. She inched closer to the man, tilted her head and smiled widely at him. "How can I become a Hero?"

"Well first off you need to have a good Quirk—"

"What's a Quirk?"

Mirio and Kazue blinked at her question and looked at her like she was somekind of weirdo for not knowing what it was. She hunched her shoulders, waiting for the inevitable scolding that she would get but Kazue just smiled at her. Naruto blinked, lips wobbling as the man came up to her and knelt down, explaining the whole concept to her.

She doesn't fully understand what a Quirk is but Naruto guessed it was like Hinata's Byakugan. Naruto doesn't have anything that could resemble it but she could always pass off her chakra. After all if she wanted to have a nice life here then Naruto would to pass off her chakra.

"So I just need to have a Quirk to be a hero?"

Kazue shook his head. "You also need to go to a special high school that specializes of that job, so you need to work hard and study hard if you want to become a hero."

_More school?_ She wanted to cry at the thought but Naruto liked the idea of getting more money. More money meant more groceries available and a chance to live in a nice apartment, because Naruto doubt that she could live here forever.

"Naruto, if you become a hero then we can be heroes together!" Mirio grinned. "Tamaki also wants to be a hero."

Naruto blinked and the boy beamed at her. Before he could open his mouth, the doorbell rang and the blonde could only stare as the boy rushed towards the door. Kazue laughed and shook his head before flickering his eyes to the female uniform on the chair.

"Can't I wear pants?"

Kazue shook his head and hummed, looking so amused at the fact that she doesn't want to wear a pants. She puffed her cheeks and folded her arms against her chest as she debated about whether or not if she could find some matches to burn the uniform.

"C'mon Tamaki!" Naruto tore her eyes away from the uniform and blinked at the sight of Tamaki being dragged inside by Mirio. He gazed at her, indigo eyes meeting her and the boy bowed his head down. _Was he trying to greet me?_ She could hear some words and his eyes seemed to fixated at her eyes before he looked away from her.

_Does every guy that looks like the bastard hates me?_ She frowned at the thought and forced a smile at the boy, who still avoided her blue eyes. What did she do to deserve this? Naruto hadn't even challenge him to a fight or did anything to him.

Mirio flickered his eyes from the blue eyes of Naruto to the shifting eyes of Tamaki. "Tamaki is a bit shy around new people, Naruto."

Oh. He was like Hinata-chan then and that thought kind of made her smile because she never thought boys could be shy. It kind of made her want to laugh because it was even funnier that there was a boy, who looked like Sasuke, and acted a little bit like Hinata-chan.

"Why is he shy?" She knitted her eyebrows and tilted her head at Tamaki. She could understand what made Hinata-chan self-conscious and so shy but Tamaki must be talented in some way. He was probably like Sasuke and had a lot of girls that would like to be with him.

Mirio shrugged. "I don't know."

Naruto doesn't notice the way that the boy kept flickering his eyes to her bright blond-hair and blue eyes.

The blonde bobbed her head as a thought and an idea dawned upon her. She slipped her hands into the pyjama pants into the Mirio lend her, a smile played on her lips and the blonde strolled straight to the boy. The indigo-haired boy kept shifting his eyes away from her while Mirio tilted his head at her. She knelt down slightly until her face was just underneath.

He squeaked and flushed a bright shade of red, earning a laugh from Kazue. Naruto smiled at him, eyes closed and the boy gawked at her before blinking his eyes at her. "I won't bite, Tamaki._"_

Tamaki squeaked even more and jerked his head away from her while Kazue just held his hand over his mouth as if trying to hold back a laugh. Mirio just gawked at her, eyebrows knitted together and Naruto smiled brightly at the nervous boy.

The indigo-haired boy flickered his eyes from the ground to her and his cheeks flushed a bright shade of red. Naruto blinked, tilting her head as she tried to understand why he seemed to be blushing even harder than Hinata-chan. She honestly doubt that he would understand she was just teasing him.

But Naruto did find it funny that she could fluster him with just a few words.

* * *

The sight of so many curious eyes looking at Naruto, almost made the blond-haired girl squirm in her spot at the front of the classroom. Most of her classmates looked normal but they had features that stood out in some way like their ears being pointy or having animal parts or even having arms that looked different. Naruto had always thought she was strange with her whisker marks but she felt at home here.

She was the most normal person here.

"Would you like to introduce yourself to the whole class?" Her new teacher asked, smiling at her. Her brown eyes shone with so much warmth and kindness as her lips curled up into an encouraging smile. Naruto gulped, blue eyes wavering as she tried to process the fact that there was a teacher, who wasn't Iruka-sensei, who seemed not to judge her.

She inhaled, steadied her trembling body and forced a smile to play on her lips. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto but everyone can call me Naruto," she closes her eyes and inhaled again. "I like ramen, pranks and gardening. I hate liars, perverts and bullies."

Naruto opened her eyes and stared at her new classmates, blue eyes sweeping across the various students. Her eyes landed on Mirio, who gave her a thumbs up and smiling at her, before looking at Tamaki. The boy looked at her with wide eyes, his eyes seemed to be fixated on her eyes. She blinks and the boy looked away from her, eyes now landing on the windows.

"Naruto-chan, what do you want to become when you grow up?"

Naruto looks at her classmates, who seemed to straightened their backs and their eyes flashed with curiosity. What did she want to be when she grows up? Well Naruto wanted to be a kunoichi but she wasn't in Konoha and these people seemed nice to her. So maybe a Hero? It would give her respect and money, which wasn't too bad if you asked her.

"I wanna be a hero."

"Who is your favourite hero?" A boy from the front row asked, leaning forward eagerly. She blinked and it was not long before everyone began asking her questions. Where do you come from? When was her birthday? And what was her favourite food? So many questions and it took all of her willpower not to wilt from the sudden attention.

She gulped down a lump. "I like Endeavour."

Everyone blinked and she wondered if maybe she chose the wrong hero. He looked cool in television and Naruto would like to be cool when she became a hero. If people were going to watch her then it would be nice if the whole world doesn't think she was lame. That they didn't think she was a loser.

She nibbled her bottom lip and looked at Tamaki because out of everyone in this whole class, Naruto could pretend for just one moment that she was in Konoha when she looked at him. That it was the bastard taunting her and the blonde could just forget her nerves for just one moment. Well she thought she could but Tamaki looked at her with such wide eyes that looked at her like she was a wonder.

Like she was someone special and Naruto forced herself to look away from him, cheeks growing red and she turned her nose up. Their teacher blinked, shifted her eyes to the blonde and then to Tamaki. A small, quiet laugh escaped from her lips and the young woman cleared her throat.

"Naruto-chan will be taking a seat right beside Tamaki-kun," Naruto blinked and swirled her head at her teacher before glancing at Tamaki. The boy hunched his shoulders and looked down at his table, not even attempting to look her in the eye._ I know Mirio said that Tamaki is shy but at least Hinata-chan will look a person in the eye and then look away._

She shook her head and strolled to the middle row, ears perking up and body hunching as she waited for someone to glare at her for sitting beside Tamaki. Her eyes darted to another girl and the blonde blinked when the girl smiled at her, white teeth sparkling and no anger radiate from her eyes.

_Maybe I was right the whole time and most of the girls in the Academy are insane_. The thought made her smile even more and a giggle escaped from her lips. She rubbed the back of her neck, took a seat right beside Tamaki and turned to smile at her new seatmate.

He doesn't look at her and Naruto puffed her cheeks.

"So Naruto, what's your Quirk?" One of the students asked, twisting their body around to look at her. Naruto blinked and just stared at her smiling classmate before darting her eyes to Mirio. Her friend looked at her with wide eyes and leaned forward to hear the answer. Tamaki gulped and muttered something under his breath before twisting his whole body around.

"I can manipulate the energy in my body," she lied.

Whispers broke out and a student called out. "That's so cool!"

"How does that work?"

"Can you show us?"

The chatter bounce around the classroom and Naruto just stared, eyes growing wide at the various smile and the excited chatter from her new classmates._ Why were these people so excited to know my power? Why are they acting so nice?_ Her heart fluttered with the knowledge that her classmates were as nice as Mirio claimed them to be, but the blonde doesn't understand why.

She worked so hard in Konoha to be accepted and failed but it was so easy here.

"Kids, you will have the whole of lunchtime to see Naruto use her Quirk," her teacher called them out. The children groaned and looked with wide eyes at the woman to allow the girl to show off, but she shook her head at them. "It's time for class."

The students slumped their shoulders and looked at the whiteboard, allowing the blond-haired girl to relax her whole body. She darted her eyes to her seatmate, who seemed to be insistent on staring straight at the trees instead of her. Blue eyes looked at her new teacher and the woman paid no attention to them.

Taking it as her opportunity, Naruto leaned closer to Tamaki's side of the table and poked him in the ribs. The boy squeaked and looked at her, cheeks flushing pink and the blonde just had to wonder if maybe Tamaki was just sick.

"Are you sick, Tamaki?"

The boy blinked and shrugged, looking almost just as confused as she was. He knitted his eyebrow and shook his head but his eyes still avoided her and his cheeks were now a furious shade of pink. She leaned closer to him, blue eyes fixated on his flushed cheeks.

"Did I do something to annoy you?"

"N-No."

Yup, her classmate might just be a weirdo.

* * *

"_Tamaki will show you the way back to my house since I have after school activities to do."_

The sun blazed, hitting the world around them, and Naruto tugged the school hat down as Tamaki focused entirely on the streets in front of them. Occasionally he would glance at her, teeth nibbling on his bottom lip and then he would furiously look away from her. His cheeks would burn brightly sometimes, almost reminding her of tomatoes.

Naruto frowned and stopped walking, blue eyes focused on the boy's hunched shoulders. She clenched and unclenched her hands, taking a deep breath as she tried to gather up the courage to talk to the strange boy in front of her.

"Do you want to ask me something, Tamaki?"

Tamaki stopped and jerked his head at her, his eyes growing wide at her. He took in several breaths, body trembling and indigo eyes fixated at her. His eyes seemed to be fixated on her bright blond hair and then it fell down to her eyes before furiously looking away. The boy clenched and unclenched his hand, eyes looking so focused that she was almost reminded of Sasuke.

Except his eyes just didn't radiate with hate.

"Why do you pretend to be so confident?" The smile on Naruto's face faded and indigo eyes seemed fixated at her with curiosity. The other children seemed to be walking away, laughing and giggling without a care in the world, but she could only stare at the boy. He blinked, shifted his body around and looked away from her curious eyes.

She nibbled her bottom lip. "How do you know?"

He squeaked and doesn't answer her question, only fixated on the pavement. Silence hung between them, growing deeper and deeper till the blonde had no choice but to puff her cheeks. She stride towards him, knelt down and blue eyes met the indigo eyes of her classmate. He turned his head away but she followed his eyes, not allowing him to look away from her.

Finally he squealed and covered his face with his hands, allowing her to smile a little and giggle. His cheeks grow even redder and her lips played into a large smile because it was kind of cute how her classmate looked. _Almost like Hinata-chan._ The thought made her smile even wider and she beamed at him.

"I guess it is because I want to be cool for once, I wasn't cool in my old school." He blinked and looked at her with wide eyes as Naruto let out a nervous laugh. She thinks that she might have told him the truth because his reactions reminded her of Hinata, and she missed her best friend.

He offered her a nervous smile. "I kind of like you for having the courage to pretend. You and Mirio are just so confident in yourselves and I can't do it."

Naruto hummed and tilted her head at him. "It isn't easy to be confident but you know I think that you can do it, Tamaki."

"I can't be cool like you or Mirio."

She laughed and shook her head at the boy. Naruto flashed him a smile before linking their arms together, causing him to blink at her. He darted his eyes to the linked arms and his cheeks grew even pinker, earning a giggle from the girl. "N-Naruto, you are too close."

"Really?" She tilted her head and looked at their distance, seeing no difference from how she would wrap herself around Shikamaru or even Hinata-chan. "I think it is normal."

"N-Not really," he muttered under his breath. Naruto blinked and tilted her head but he doesn't explain, only looking away from her. His cheeks seemed to be growing a bright shade of red and she wondered if maybe he was allergic from contact. _But he was fine when we played with Mirio._ She decided to shove the thought against her memory.

"I think you can be cool," he looked at her with wide eyes and she smiled brightly at him. "I mean you kind of look cool with your ears."

He blinked and raised his eyebrows at her. "R-Really?"

"Yeah but you are kind of weird," he slumped his shoulders and she flashed him a smile. "But I like your kind of weird because you look kind of cute."

The funny thing was that she was telling the truth, which was weird because she thought Sasuke was a bastard. Even though Tamaki looked like her former classmate and rival, he looked so adorable and cute that she wanted to see him flustered forever.

She doesn't understand why.

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**A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter.**

* * *

_Why is she writing in kanji of all things? I can't read it._

Naruto hunched her shoulders and clenched her hand around her pencil as their teacher explained the formation of rivers to them. The explanation was understandable, explained in a way that even an idiot like her can understand, but the notes were just too hard for her to understand.

She nibbled her bottom lip and flickered her eyes to her seatmate. Tamaki seemed to have his eyebrows knitted together as he wrote down the notes. Occasionally, the boy would look up to see the notes in the whiteboard. Blue eyes bored into her seatmate until the boy glanced at her, indigo eyes flashed with confusion. He looked from her notebook to her.

The girl took a deep breath until she felt all of her ribs cracked from her pressure before she finally exhaled a rather loud breath. She dropped the loudness of her voice until Tamaki was the only one that could hear her. "Can you tell me what it says?"

Tamaki blinked and darted his eyes to his own notebook. "W-Which one?"

Naruto chewed on her bottom lip and pointed at the middle character in the second line. Tamaki nibbled his bottom lip, eyebrows scrunched together and he took several deep breaths. _Maybe he is copying without understanding the character? Maybe that's why he is taking so long to answer._ She opened her mouth, only to close it when the boy relaxed his shoulder.

"River." Tamaki cleared his throat and looked at her. His eyes doesn't seem to be judging her for the fact that she couldn't read the Kanji like he could. _Anyone else would have laughed at me._ Then again, this world seemed nicer towards her. No one glared at her like she was some kind of monster. People smiled at her instead, which was kind of weird if you asked her.

She shook her head and smiled widely at Tamaki. The boy flushed red and twisted his head around, causing the blond-haired girl to laugh. Their teacher twisted her head around, brown eyes locked on the sight of them and the woman sighed.

Their teacher put down the chalk and pressed her lips into a thin line. "Amajiki! Uzumaki! No talking in class!"

Tamaki flinched and hunched his shoulders, his eyes focused on his notebook. Naruto looked down at her own hands and inhaled deeply, blue eyes focused on her trembling friend. It was probably her fault that her friend was in trouble because if she could just read Kanji then her friend wouldn't have gotten scolded. She chewed on her bottom lip.

"I'm sorry." Tamaki blinked and Naruto stared at the board, her hand rubbing the back of her neck. Was he going to scold her for getting him into trouble? For getting him called out or was he going to accept her apology. They only knew each other for about three days now but Naruto doesn't know if he really was like Hinata-chan, or if he was like that bastard Sasuke.

Tamaki flickered his eyes everywhere before fixating his eyes on her. He reached out to her, his fingers trembling slightly before he finally steadied it. The older boy dropped his hand on her shoulder, forcing the younger girl to look at him.

Naruto blinked at the lack of anger and irritation radiating from his eyes. The only emotion flashing through his eyes were understanding and forgiveness, making the blond-haired girl pause at this behavior. "It's okay. Y-You can ask me if you can't understand something."

Her throat tightened at his words and a part of her wanted to tell him that she could understand everything. A part of her felt like making boasts but something stopped her from making that comment. _I can't be cool like you or Mirio._ Yeah, she shouldn't make boasts because Tamaki was honest with her. He admitted to her about his own doubts.

She should be willing to admit that she wasn't that smart.

_Deadlast._

That was the title given to her in the Academy but Naruto wanted to shred that title away. She might dislike being in classes, reading and all that stuff but she wanted to be someone here. She wanted to shine in this place because Naruto hated how people underestimate her. She hated the way her classmates would turn their noses up, thinking that they were better than her.

She wasn't going to let these people have the same opportunity.

"Uzumaki, you need to write down the notes." Tamaki whispered. Naruto blinked and the boy pointed to the blackboard where their teacher wrote down the final note. She slumped her shoulders and bobbed her head before writing down her notes.

She squinted her eyes again and pointed to another Kanji. "Tamaki, what does that kanji mean?"

"Mountain."

Their teacher sighed and twisted her head around, her eyes locked onto the two of them. "Uzumaki! Amajiki! What did I just say?"

The two preteens flinched and the woman shook her head, lips pressed into a thin line as her eyes focused on the two of them. The other students turned to look at them with their heads tilted to the side and eyebrows knitted together. Naruto looked down at her hands while Tamaki hunched his shoulders at them.

Mirio eyed the two teens in confusion, not understand one bit on why those two kept being called out by the teacher.

"I will talk to the both of you during your lunch break."

All of the students stared at them with pity in their eyes and shook their heads at them. A few of the boys sighed, muttering comments under their breath while the girls just stared at Naruto with curious eyes. Naruto grinded her teeth together and clenched her hands. It was one thing for her to get into trouble but she never meant for Tamaki to get into trouble.

Would Tamaki and Mirio stop being friends with her because she got Tamaki into trouble?

Tamaki flickered his eyes towards the blonde and knitted his eyebrows together at the sight of Naruto hunching her shoulders together. He lowered the tone of his voice. "I-It's okay. I don't mind seeing the teacher with you."

"Aren't you upset that I got you into trouble with her?" Tamaki blinked and Naruto stared down at her trembling hands. She wouldn't have asked this question if it wasn't for the fact that Sakura used to get slightly irritated whenever she asked her to explain whatever that bastard Mizuki wrote on the board.

Her friend finally shook his head. "Mirio does the same thing which is why she stopped us from sitting together. I was s-serious about helping you if you ever feel like you can't understand something."

Naruto blinked and blinked before smiling widely at the older boy. Tamaki looked at her, indigo eyes fixated on her smile and he flushed a bright shade of red. She knitted her eyebrows together when the boy looked away from her, his hands covering his face and he muttered something under his breath.

Her ears might be playing tricks on her because Naruto swore that her friend said her smile was like sunshine.

(_Later when they became teens, Tamaki will admit to her that her smiles always reminded him of sunshine and that it always brightened his day)_

* * *

The laughter of their classmates drilled through the windows of their classroom and Naruto longed to join them in a game of tag. Instead Tamaki and her were stuck inside the dull walls of their classroom with their teacher sitting across them. The only consolation that Naruto had was the fact that she wasn't stuck here by herself. It made things easier if you ask her.

Their teacher tapped her feet and folded her arms against her chest, looking unimpressed at the fact that the two of them had spoken when she specifically told them to stop talking. She darted her eyes from Naruto to Tamaki and then back to the blond-haired girl.

"Why did you continue talking after I have told you to stop talking?" The words hung in the air and the young woman looked at Tamaki. The boy trembled slightly and he looked down at his own two feet before hunching his shoulders. Despite the obvious fear, Naruto was surprised that the boy refused to answer.

The woman looked at her and leaned forward, her own eyes gazing at Naruto's own eyes and if the woman thought she could make her nervous than she had another thing going. Nothing in the world would make the girl admit the fact that she couldn't read Kanji properly. She turned her nose up and clenched her jaws.

Their teacher pressed her lips into a thin line and a sigh escaped from her lips. "If I find that the reason the two of you talking in class is acceptable then neither of you will face detention. If you tell me what this conversation was about then the two of you can have lunch."

Naruto darted her eyes to Tamaki and nibbled her bottom lip, waiting to see what would the older boy do. He looked at her, indigo eyes widening slightly and he hunched his shoulders._ He is going to tell on me._ Here she thought that maybe Tamaki was her friend. She held her breath and the only sound that could be heard was the gentle ticks of their clock.

Why wasn't he saying anything?

He could go out to play if he told the woman the truth.

Naruto shifted to the side and looked at her new teacher, who pinched her nose at Tamaki's behavior. The young teacher darted her eyes to her and Naruto blinked when she saw the lack of irritation and anger coming from her teacher. The only thing that she could see was pure warmth radiating through her eyes and Naruto couldn't help but question it.

Why were people here warmer to her?

Why did people in her own village treat her like she was some kind of ghost that they wished never existed?

"I ask Tamaki to read the kanji," Naruto gulped down a lump and looked down at her shoes. Her teacher blinked and Tamaki stared at her with surprise. She inhaled and exhaled as she tried to gather up the courage to admit her short-comings to a teacher. "I don't know how to read kanji."

Naruto hunched her shoulders and looked down at her feet as sweat dribbled down the side of her face. Was her teacher going to call her dumb? Because that was what the students in the Academy called her whenever she struggled to read kanji. They never did it in front of Iruka-sensei but they always did it in the playground or whenever Mizuki took over the lessons.

She guessed that should have been an indicator that the man was a liar.

"Do you want me to help you catch up?" Her teacher's voice was soft and gentle, almost reminding Naruto of Hinata and Iruka-sensei. Except there was only one difference between Iruka-sensei and her new teacher. Her new teacher was kind from the very beginning and Iruka-sensei only became kind last year.

Naruto blinked when Tamaki poked her on the rib. She shot a grateful look to him and then looked at her teacher. "Why do you want to help me?"

Tamaki blinked at her question and her teacher's eyes softened.

"Not everyone have equal opportunities when it comes to learning," her teacher explained. "And so I am willing to fix the gap between you and the other students."

Naruto just stared at him and her throat tightened at the fact that her teacher didn't think she was dumb. Her teacher wanted to help her, which was weird because no one wanted to help her before. She looked down at her hands, clenching and unclenching her hands together.

"Uzumaki, I'm willing to work with you after school to help you with your reading skills," their teacher declared. "But are you willing to work with me on this issue?"

Blue eyes flickered to Tamaki and the boy offered her an encouraging smile as if telling her that she should take this opportunity. She inhaled and exhaled as her mind went to war over this issue. Yes, this woman was willing to help her when it came to her issues but what if this was a test of some kind. What if she became frustrated if Naruto couldn't catch up like the others?

The doubts formed in her mind and Naruto forced herself to shove it away. She forced herself to smile at her teacher and the blonde bobbed her head. The woman smiled widely at her and Naruto prayed to God that she wasn't making a mistake when it came to this teacher.

She wanted to become a better student and Naruto wanted to become number one for once in her life.

* * *

Pedestrian watch and shook their heads as three preteens walked through the streets with their arms linked together. The laughter from the two blonds blasted throughout the streets while the black-haired boy watched them with his shoulders slumped and he watched the two blonds with a tiny smile playing on his lips.

Naruto turned her head to look at Tamaki, opening her mouth to question his quietness, and blinked when she saw the tiny nervous smile playing on his lips. _He is like a nervous little bunny._ She held back the urge to ruffle his hair and tease him because Tamaki probably wouldn't like it if she did it.

Naruto knitted her eyebrows and looked at her two friends. It had been three days since she came to this country and not once had she ever actually seen her friends use their Quirks. Were their Quirks like Hinata-chan Byakugan? Because if it was then it was awesome or was it something else? The people of this world really had weird powers.

"Mirio! Tamaki! What are your Quirks?"

The two boys stopped walking and looked at her with wide eyes as if surprised that she didn't know their Quirks. She puffed her cheeks and looked at them with determined eyes. Mirio slapped his fist against his palm as if realizing that he really hadn't shown her what he could do with his Quirk. He hadn't even explained his Quirk to her if she was being honest.

"I can phase my body through anything physical!" Mirio explained.

Naruto knitted her eyebrows and squinted her eyes at him, causing the blonde to laugh. She darted her eyes to Tamaki and the boy squeaked, looking away from her. _Sometimes he can act really normal around me and sometimes he acts like Hinata when she is around Kiba or thinking about him._ The blonde wondered if he was always thinking about his crush.

But do boys get crushes around the age of 12? Because Naruto had never seen any of the boys in the Academy have crushes. Maybe boys develop feelings later because that was the only explanation on why Sasuke never seem to like any of the confessions from Sakura, Ino or even any of the other girls.

"Can you show me?" She asked. "Cause I don't understand what you mean, Mirio."

Mirio bobbed his head and gestured for them to go near one of the shops. Tamaki frowned and looked at the two of them with nervous eyes. He steadied his trembling arms and looked at them with a small frown playing on his lips. "We will get into trouble if you use your Quirk in public, Mirio!"

"But Naruto really wants to see it!" Mirio declared, smiling at them.

Tamaki sighed and opened his mouth to protest but only to close it when Naruto turned to him. _I will use the same technique that I use on the Hokage and Iruka-sensei!_ She clasped her hands together, pouted and largened her bright blue eyes. He faltered and slumped his shoulders, earning a raised eyebrow from Mirio.

"You are the best, Tamaki!" Tamaki flushed red when Naruto launched herself at him, hugging him so tightly. Mirio laughed while the boy squeaked and flushed an even brighter shade of red. The pedestrians looked at them, shaking their heads and laughing at the interactions between the two preteens.

Mirio tilted his head and hummed when Tamaki shoot pleading eyes at him. He bobbed his head and gently pried Naruto away from Tamaki, who was still blushing as red as a tomato. The blonde tilted her head and raised an eyebrow at her friend, who shrugged his shoulder as if to tell her that he didn't understand why he had to do it.

"Right, I will show you what my Quirk is, Naruto!" Naruto bounced and clapped her hands together as Mirio walked up to a shop. She leaned forward, not noticing how Tamaki was watching her with weird eyes, and gawked when her friend put his finger through the solid wall. He knitted his eyebrows, trying to push his hand but only to be blocked. He laughed and pulled out his hand.

"I will get better—"

"So cool!" Mirio blinked and smiled as Naruto clapped her hands together, blue eyes sparkling at him. Tamaki smiled and slumped his shoulders, looking at them with nervous eyes. Naruto swirled her head to Tamaki and the boy blinked when the blonde clapped her hands together, blue eyes sparkling with hope.

"What can you do, Tamaki?"

Tamaki blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I can change my hands and legs to whatever I eat."

"So if you eat a crab, you can make a claw?" Tamaki hesitate and nodded his head. Naruto nibbled her bottom lip and looked at Mirio, who stared at the two of them with a bright smile on his face. She smiled widely and squeezed her hands together, blue eyes sparkling with life and Tamaki blinked. "Can you show me, Tamaki?"

Tamaki hesitate and knitted his eyebrows together. Blue eyes widened when she see a little plant coming out of his skin, looking so tiny that it was almost hard to see. _Maybe if he and Mirio practice more then it will be even more awesome._ Naruto darted her eyes to Tamaki and the boy slumped his shoulders, looking down at his trembling arms. He looked at her and blinked when Naruto looked at him.

"Tamaki can do better, Naruto." Mirio explained. "He is just a little bit nervous."

Naruto looked at Tamaki and frowned. "Why? Your Quirk is so awesome!"

He flushed a bright shade of red at her compliment. She linked their arms together, smiling and staring at her two friends and looked up at the bright blue sky before looking back at her friends. "I think you guys just need practice but you guys have amazing Quirks."

She wondered how amazing her friends would be when they master their Quirks because it seemed like an awesome superpower that she wished she could have.

* * *

**A/N: Please review**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favorites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter.**

* * *

"What are you doing, Naruto?"

Naruto dropped the hand seal and swirled her head at Mirio. The older boy leaned against the door of her bedroom, arms crossed against his chest and eyebrows knitted together at the sight before him. His blue eyes flickered to the open scroll on her bed and like a curious cat, her friend shuffled to her bed. He picked up the scroll and tilted his head.

"I'm trying to make a clone with my Chakra." Mirio blinked and raised his eyebrow, reminding the 12-year-old girl that her friend (or was he her foster brother now? She wasn't certain) didn't know anything about chakra. She dropped her hands to the side of her body and began to explain the concept of Chakra to him. Even though Naruto wasn't the smartest tool in the shed, Hinata drilled the explanation to her brain.

There was the occasional interruption but the lack of questioning made Naruto feel like maybe she explained it well enough to him.

Finally, Mirio nodded and grinned. "It will be so cool if you can make a clone!"

"If I don't mess up this time," Naruto sighed and looked at the scroll in Mirio's hand. "I'm really trying my luck with this clone."

Her friend frowned and tilted his head to the side, eyebrows knitted together. "What do you mean?"

"Well I try to make a Bunshin like how I was taught back home but I always mess up," Naruto puffed her cheeks and Mirio chuckled. _If people think I've a loud laugh then they have never met Mirio._ With the way her friend laugh, it wouldn't even surprise her if he woke their neighbours up on this fine Saturday morning. "They call this jutsu…the Kage Bunshin, so maybe I will have some luck."

Mirio frowned and scratched his head. "What is the difference between them?"

Naruto blinked and furrowed her eyebrows. She never thought about the difference between the two jutsu, but then again Mizuki tricked her. The damn Bastard played with her emotions. He manipulated her into stealing the scroll, bringing her to a country that seemed so different from the country of her birth. For all she knows, there might be no difference but it sound different.

If it sounds different then there must be a difference.

"I will tell you when I master this!" Mirio nodded and sat down on the ground. He rolled up the scroll, pausing when the character of forbidden caught his eyes. He raised his eyebrows and swirled his head at the blond-haired girl, who seemed to be gathering her chakra together to make the jutsu.

"Naruto?"

Naruto slumped her shoulders and dropped her hands together. She swirled her head to her friend, tapping her feet together as her hands rested on her hips. For just one moment, Naruto knew that this would be the moment when she mastered the jutsu. _I would ask a lot of questions when I have no clue about chakra._ She sighed.

"Yes, Mirio?"

Mirio tilted his head and frowned. "Naruto, this scroll says that the technique inside here is forbidden. If the techniques are forbidden then why are you using it? How did you even get it? It looks like an important document."

Naruto froze and let out a little nervous laugh, earning a raised eyebrow from her friend. The blond-haired girl poked her fingers together, twisting and twirling them together as guilt washed over her. Mirio would understand, wouldn't he? And it was not like she could give the scroll back to the Old Man in Konoha. She was stuck here and if she was going to become a Hero, then she should use the scroll to reach her dream.

"I stole the scroll."

"Naruto!" Mirio stared at her with wide eyes and opened mouth, almost resembling a fish. The blond-haired girl hunched her shoulders, letting out a sigh and taking a seat on the soft blue carpet of her bedroom. The older boy just stared at her, arms folded against his chest and finally Naruto sighed.

"I was tricked!" Mirio blinked and raised his eyebrow as the blond-haired girl let out a sigh. "I had this teacher that hated me and really I should have known that it was a trap…but the bastard knew my weak spot all too damn well. If I ever go back home, I'm going to teach him why I'm the Head Bitch In Charge."

"Don't let Dad hear you say those words," Mirio reminded her. "Remember what he did to you when you swore in front of him."

Naruto shuddered and nearly touched her tongue. She just snubbed her knee against the edge of the table, which caused her to swear as many colourful words as she knew. A bad idea to do in front Kazue. The man did not find her swearing to be cute, instead he made her put some money into a swear jar before making her scrub her tongue with soap.

Mirio found it funny while Naruto learnt to keep her mouth in check.

"By the way, why do you think he tricked you?" Mirio knitted his eyebrows. "You didn't mean to steal the scroll?"

Naruto nodded. "In school, if you wanted to go to the next stage of your schooling then you need to perform the Bunshin Jutsu since _everyone_ in our village has chakra. But I failed at that jutsu so they wanted to keep me in for another year. Mizuki, may he rot in hell, told me if I learnt a jutsu from this scroll then I will pass my exam."

Mirio frowned. "Why couldn't you just wait till next year?"

The scowl on Naruto's face faded at the question. Pale, nervous lilac eyes flashed before her eyes and Naruto felt the bubbles of happiness in her stomach fade. Was it okay for her to be happy without Hinata by her side? They had never been apart for this long. Who was going to tease her about her crush on Kiba? Or threaten him to treat her right? She sighed and looked at her school books.

She loved Japan but she missed Konoha.

No, she missed Hinata-chan.

"I just wanted to be in the same year as Hinata-chan," Naruto whispered, hunching her shoulders. "Hinata-chan is my best friend. We have been friends since we were six after I saved her from some bullies and the thought of not being in the same class as her…it hurts a lot."

Mirio stared at her and took a seat right beside her. He tapped her shoulder and the blonde blinked, looking at her friend. There was some understanding in his eyes, telling her that maybe he could understand her desire to keep Hinata safe. _Oh yeah, Tamaki is his Hinata._ She could just imagine the amount of questioning that Tamaki's future girlfriend would get from Mirio.

She wrinkled her nose at the thought and shook her head.

"What is Hinata like?" Naruto looked away from the ground and into the curious eyes of her friend. _A-Are you sure that he likes me, Naruto-chan?_ Flushed cheeks flashed before her eyes alongside a tiny squeak echoed in her ears. It was not long before the image disappeared, replaced with Tamaki. A tiny laugh escaped from her lips as Tamaki's panicked expression flashed before her eyes.

"She is a little bit like Tamaki," Mirio blinked and Naruto grinned. "Hinata-chan is shy around people and she doesn't have much confidence in herself but she tries her hardest to support me," she laughed even more. "Y'know I used to tease her about her crush on our mutual friend 'cause she acts even more shy around him."

Mirio blinked and blinked as blue eyes widened. If you asked Naruto, it seemed like a lightbulb went off around his head as if he just came into the realization about something. She tilted her head, eyebrows furrowed together as the older boy continued to stare down at her. Sighing, the blonde poked him in the ribs.

"Is everything okay?" Naruto asked.

Her friend laughed and bobbed his head. "Yeah, I just realized something."

"What?"

"Can't tell ya," Mirio declared. "Boy's code."

Naruto shrugged and looked away from her friend as he dashed out of her bedroom with a chuckle. _I think I might be a weirdo because I thought I used to understand boys, but Mirio is acting weird…and I had Shino for a classmate._ She shrugged and resumed her training again.

She was going to master the Kage Bunshin Jutsu even if it killed her.

* * *

"I just realized that you has been here for nearly a week now and we don't have any proper clothes for you to wear," Kazue informed Naruto as he placed the bowl of rice in front of her. Mirio withdrew his hand from the riceballs, swirling his head at the blond-haired girl. The 12-year-old girl was currently wearing Mirio's All Might hoodie and her usual peach-coloured cheeks was turning pale.

Dread crept up in her stomach as Kazue eyed the oversized All Might hoodie on her. Now for all the insults that people would use on her, Naruto was not dumb when it came to reading between lines. Oh no, she knew what Kazue was hinting to them. Most girls would be thrilled at the notion that Kazue was hinting to her, but Naruto was not like most girls.

"I have no problem wearing Mirio's clothes," Naruto shrugged and flashed a smile at the father and son. She lowered the hoodie and sighed. "His clothes are so comfy."

Kazue pressed his lips into a thin line and shook his head. He set the cooked mackerel fish right beside her, putting his hands on his hips and giving her a look that Naruto despised seeing. No one liked seeing the disappointed face. "Mirio might have comfy clothes but you can't wear boy's clothes. You need to have your own clothes."

"But I don't like shopping!" Naruto pouted. "It's boring!"

Miro bobbed his head. "You are the only one that likes shopping, Dad."

The black-haired man shook his head at the two pouting preteens. He rubbed his chin, eyebrows knitted together, and tilted his head to the side. Sighing, the man leaned his body forward and clasped his hands together. His dark eyes locked onto the bright eyes of Naruto. "What will it take for you to agree to go shopping?"

Naruto hummed and tilted her head, hand rubbing her chin as Mirio and Kazue stared at her. What would make her agree to go with him shopping? Oh. The man asked the wrong question. She grinned, earning a look of dread from both males. If he was going to make that look then he should have asked a different question. Mirio leaned further away from Naruto while Kazue looked at the ceiling.

"If you let us have ramen for dinner!" Mirio let out a sigh of relief and grinned while Kazue hung his head. Naruto knitted her eyebrows, not understanding the man's despair. She hadn't eaten ramen in front of this man, not when there had been home-cooked meals in the house. Don't get her wrong, she enjoyed the meals…but she missed her ramen.

"Okay."

Mirio grinned. "I'm going to go call Tamaki! If I'm going to suffer from your shopping spree then I will have Tamaki join us!"

_I don't want him to see me being embarrassed by the outfits that Kazue is going to pick for me. _She tugged the hood of Mirio's All Might hoodie and hunched her back, not noticing the knowing look from Kazue or the chuckle from Mirio. She liked Tamaki. He was like Hinata but she doesn't want him to see her like that. She doesn't want anyone to see her wear any girly clothes.

She doesn't know why she doesn't want Tamaki to see her wear those clothes.

"Mirio, can you ask Tamaki-kun if his mother is free?" Kazue called out to Mirio. The blond-haired boy had already pushed himself off the chair, ready to dash straight to the living room to get his phone but paused at those words. Naruto raised her eyebrows while Mirio tilted his head at his father.

Why would they need Tamaki's mother?

Mirio stared at his father. "Why?"

"Because Naruto is a girl," Kazue explained to his son, flickering his eyes to Naruto. "I have no clue on what type of clothes that a girl should wear."

The blond-haired boy bobbed his head and dashed to the living room. Naruto hunched her shoulders and looked down at the food before her. What was the big deal? Sure, she was no fashion expert but she could choose clothes by herself. She doesn't need anyone to see her buying clothes. Mirio was fine. He was her friend. But Tamaki was different. She doesn't know why but she doesn't want him to see her look weird.

"You know I just need to wear a shirt and pants, right?" Naruto pushed her food back and forth, blue eyes fixated on the eyes of the dead fish. She chewed on her bottom lip, pushing it back and forth as she played with her food. Kazue sighed and smiled, looking at her like he understood her discomfort and maybe he did. Naruto couldn't really judge him, not when she had no idea about his past.

"I know but I think you know that girls can be cruel if you don't have the right clothes, don't you Naruto?" The blond-haired girl hunched her shoulders and scowled. He sighed and the man flickered his eyes to his smiling son. "As long as you are under my care, I will help you in anyway to prevent that from happening…and for us to do that, we need to go shopping."

Naruto sighed. "Even if I wear those clothes, I won't look good in them."

"Let the boys be the judge," Kazue chuckled. "Beside, I think you will find that some people would say that you will look good even if you wear a trash bin."

The blonde knitted her eyebrows. "Who the hell would say that?"

"Mirio's mother used to compliment me," Kazue sighed and looked at his son. "We both knew that I had no fashion sense but she loved me and thinks that I can pull anything off. Who knows Naruto, you might not have any confidence about your clothes but there might be someone that sees differently."

"Old Man, you know I'm 12." She deadpanned.

Kazue chuckled. "So? You are still old enough to have a crush."

"Won't happen," Naruto grinned and Kazue raised his eyebrow at the girl. She shrugged and looked to the man. "Because crushes are for girls that have no goals in life. I'm going to become one of the best heroes in the world, so I have no time to develop crushes."

Kazue chuckled and eyed her. "Tell me this again when you are sixteen. If you haven't got a crush by the time you are sixteen or even before then, I will say you are right kid."

Naruto grinned and bobbed her head, earning a sigh and shaking head from the older male. He flickered his eyes to his son and then looked at her with a tiny smile. _He doesn't believe for one minute I won't be able to do this._ She would prove him wrong. By the time she reached sixteen, Naruto would be a proud woman that would show everyone that a man won't affect her.

She had goals after all.

* * *

_How did Mirio convince me to come with him and my Mum shopping?_

Tamaki hunched his shoulders and pressed his hoodie over his head, shifting around in his seat as he and the other males waited for his mother to get Naruto to come out in the outfits she chose for her. He had been happy with his video games and reading the latest chapter of his favorite manga. But Mirio made it seem like it would be the end of the world if he was left alone to deal with his father's shopping for clothes for Naruto.

He eyed the orange dress that his mother picked out for Naruto. In the week that they have gotten to know Naruto, Tamaki came to learn Naruto hated anything feminine. _What would Naruto look like in a dress? _He closed his eyes as the image of his friend in a dress flashed before his eyes. _She would look really cute._ He flushed pink and shook his head.

Mirio curled his lips into a smile and leaned his body closer to Tamaki. "Hey Tamaki, do you have a crush on Naruto?"

"N-No, of course not." Mirio frowned and looked at him with his knitted eyebrows. He was only thirteen, way too young to have a crush on someone. If he blushed around Naruto then it was because she got too close around him, or because she was just too cute. He flushed pink and tugged on his hoodie. He admired Naruto for her confidence. That was all.

He inhaled and whispered. "Why do you think I-I have a crush on Naruto?"

His blond-haired friend chuckled and eyed the changing room, where Naruto was either changing into the dress or arguing with his mother about the dress, before leaning closer to him. Tamaki swirled his head at his friend, tilted his head and raised an eyebrow as Mirio's father stared at them with amusement. _Why does it feel like everyone is taunting me?_ He frowned.

"Well Naruto told me that you are similar to her best friend, Hinata." Tamaki blinked and knitted his eyebrows as Mirio leaned his body forward slightly. Blue eyes fixated on the changing room. "She told me how her best friend got even more shy around her crush. Well you seem more shy around Naruto so—"

"It doesn't mean anything," Mirio eyed him and Tamaki fiddled with his hands. "We are only 13, or nearly 13 in Naruto's case. If I'm more shy around Naruto then it is because Naruto gets really close to me or she looks really cute."

The blond-haired boy chuckled and bobbed his head. "You know a lot of the boys in our year thinks that Naruto to be the cutest girl in the year. I heard them talking about it while you and Naruto were getting scolded by Sensei."

Tamaki frowned and hunched his shoulders. Yeah, he could see why a lot of people found Naruto to be cute. She played in the dirt with them, acted so cheerful and loved joking around with them. He sighed and looked down in his own hands. If they ever become heroes then out of the three of them, he would probably be the least popular. Mirio was funny and confident while Naruto was just confident and pretty.

His mother strolled towards them with a smile playing on her lips. Tamaki knew from his mother's smile that she was triumph about something. _Not even she can out last my mother's stubborn._ She smiled widely at them, earning a raised eyebrow from Mirio's father. His mother shook her head and put her hands on her hips, indigo eyes fixated on him and Mirio.

"Boys, can you give your honest opinion on Naruto-chan dress?" They nodded and his mother walked back into the changing room, dragging a flushed Naruto in front of them. The blond-haired girl wore an orange, floral dress that seemed to reach to the middle of her knees and for once, her hair seemed to be flowing down to her ankles. If you asked Tamaki, how Naruto looked then he would say that she looked really pretty.

Silence hung throughout the group of males as they processed the fact Naruto wore a dress. Naruto tugged on the bottom of her dress, lips curled into a scowl and arms folded against her chest. Tamaki rubbed the back of his neck and looked away, pushing down the desire to spill his thoughts to her. Mirio just glanced at them while Kazue chuckled and his mother giggled. _Are they taunting me?_ He tugged his hoodie.

"I knew it! I look like a damn weirdo in a dress!" Naruto puffed her cheeks and looked at his mother with accusing eyes. "You told me that I won't look weird."

"N-No," Naruto swirled her head at him and Tamaki fiddled with his hands, not looking Naruto in the face as his cheeks flushed a bright shade of red. "Y-You look really cute."

The blond-haired girl blinked as Tamaki flushed a brighter shade of red. Why would he say this? He should have kept his mouth shut. Now Naruto was going to think he was a bigger weirdo. He flickered his eyes to Naruto as the blond-haired girl looked away from him. Both Kazue and his mother glanced at each other, shaking their heads at each other with a smile playing on their lips.

Tamaki inhaled and looked at Naruto again. He blinked at the sight of her smile and felt his heart speed up at the sight of her grin being directed at him. Her bright blue eyes twinkled, looking so much brighter than ever before, and Tamaki gulped. He doesn't know why his throat dried up at the smile or why he seemed so flushed.

He only had one thought at the sight of her smile:

_Her smiles are really like sunshine…it can make you feel so warm and happy._

* * *

**A/N:** As many people can guess, Sunlight was created because of Tamaki's one sided feelings in the Guardian Chronicles. Sunlight is generally going to be more happier version of the Guardian Chronicles since I do feel bad for Tamaki not being with Naruto in the series. Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter.**

* * *

"_Y-You look really cute."_

Naruto chewed on her bottom lip and clasped her hands together as she focused her eyes on the ground below her. A part of her knew she should be focusing on Mirio but Tamaki's words from the shop still echoed in her ear. It was almost like one of those terrible songs that Kazue loved to hear on repeat, always playing in the back of her mind. She hunched her shoulders.

_I know Tamaki was only being nice to me but why the hell did I react like that?_ Even though it had only been 30 minutes since they left that shop, Naruto could still feel the lingering heat on her face. Why did she blush like that? Was it because Tamaki had been the first boy to compliment her looks? None of the boys in Konoha ever complimented her when it came to her looks.

Then again most of the boys in Konoha always liked to pick on her or call her names. _But the boys in Japan are different._ She darted her eyes to Tamaki and Mirio. Neither of them looked at her like she was an annoyance or treated her like she was a stupid little girl. If anything they seemed to enjoy hanging out with her if their breaktimes were of any clue. They always made time for her.

"I-I'm going to get us some ice-cream." Tamaki stood up from his spot in the bench and Naruto jerked her head at the boy. Indigo eyes fixated on her for a good couple of seconds, lingering on the golden strands of her blond hair before flickering to her eyes. Seconds passed before his cheeks began to grow a faint shade of pink and Naruto felt her own cheeks flushing a bright shade of red.

"_Y-You look really cute!"_

Why did she have to keep remembering those words? And why was she blushing like one of Sasuke's fangirls? She was better than this. Just because he gave her one compliment, didn't mean she was going to act like Hinata-chan. No sir. It would be a pain in the neck if she kept blushing around him. _I still need to go through school without getting on any girl's bad side._ She nodded her head.

"I want chocolate ice-cream!" Naruto blinked and swirled her head at Mirio. Her friend had a large smile plastered on his face and had his blue eyes fixated on Tamaki. The blond-haired teen turned his head towards her. "What do you want, Naruto?"

"I guess the same as you, Mirio." She smiled and fixated her eyes on Tamaki. The older boy gulped and looked away from her, only giving them a stiff nod to indicate that he heard her request before dashing straight to the ice cream vendor. _He really does look kinda of cute._ A small laugh escaped from her lips as her eyes followed Tamaki.

"Are you feeling better now?" Mirio asked. Naruto tore her eyes away from Tamaki and stared at the concerned eyes of her other male friend. "You looked a little bit sick when Tamaki called you cute."

All of the blood inside of her body rushed straight back to her cheeks and Naruto forced herself to look away from her friend. She nodded and flickered her eyes to Mirio. The boy had a small frown playing on his lips. _I know why he is confused; I'm acting like a weirdo._ This wasn't like her. She could always smile and laugh off a compliment or joke.

But there had been something different about the compliment coming out of Tamaki's mouth and she didn't know what the reason was.

"I'm fine." She finally choked out. "He just caught me off guard when he called me cute."

Mirio raised a single eyebrow at her but made no comment about her words. Not that she expected him to say anything. What was there for him to say? It wasn't like she had a crush on Tamaki or anything but that had been the first time someone complimented her for her appearance.

"Why?" The blond-haired girl blinked and her friend leaned his body forward. He twisted his head around, looking almost inhumane with the degree that he turned his head, and focused his eyes on her. "You are probably considered one of the prettiest girls in our year if you asked any of the boys."

"Me?" She snorted. "You've got to be kidding me."

He shook his head. "Why would I joke about that? It will be mean of me to make a joke about that."

"But I don't act like a girl." She retorted. Mirio raised his eyebrow at her as if asking her about why her behaviour had to be a big deal for someone to like her. _Of course he wouldn't understand; he is a guy._ Naruto clenched her jaws and allowed her eyes to watch Tamaki, who struggled to carry three cones of ice-cream to them.

"So what?" Mirio shrugged his shoulder. "You don't have to change yourself to make a guy like you. My Dad isn't the most manly guy but my mum fell in love with him."

_Yeah but I bet Kazue didn't have to get scolded by both boys and girls for acting so rough._ She wrinkled her nose and hunched her shoulders. _You'll be lucky if someone looks at you, Ugly._ It hadn't been a girl who made that comment to her. It had been one of the civilian boys in the Academy, who made that comment.

"What are you guys talking about to make Naruto upset?" Tamaki asked. Naruto jerked her head up and swirled her head at her friend. The indigo-haired boy had a nervous smile playing on his lips as he handed their ice-creams to them. His eyes flashed with concern and the blond-haired girl looked away.

Mirio hummed a small tune and stared at Tamaki. "Naruto thinks that it is impossible for her to be considered cute because she doesn't act like a girl."

"But Naruto is c-cute." Blue eyes widened as the indigo-haired boy flushed a deep shade of red. _I think he lost his mind._ She hung her head down, not allowing any of her friends to see her expression. Why did he have to say that? She wasn't cute. There was nothing about her appearance that made her cute. "And it doesn't matter if you don't act like a girl, Naruto."

Naruto blinked and jerked her head up at Tamaki. "What do you mean it doesn't matter? I had so many boys back home telling me that it will be a miracle if a guy looked at me with how much of a tomboy I act and how I don't look anything like a girl with the way I dress."

"B-But that makes them superficial, don't you think?" He took a seat right beside her and looked up at the bright blue skies before fixating his eyes on her. "If they only care about how you look then they won't really see how amazing your personality is."

"Tamaki is right!" Mirio agreed, slinging his arm around her. Naruto blinked and twisted her head to look at her smiling friend. "So what if you don't really act like a girl? Or wear dresses? Tamaki and me think that you are amazing just the way you are!"

"_Naru-chan, I-I think you are amazing!"_

She always thought Hinata-chan said those words because she saved her from those bullies, but Tamaki and Mirio never needed her to save them. _I guess maybe Hinata-chan was telling the truth._ She curled her lips into a bright smile and blinked back the tears that threatened to come out.

"Thank you." She muttered as she took a lick of her ice-cream. "You don't know how much those words means to me."

_Maybe I might actually be happy in this country._

* * *

_Where the hell are they?_

A small frown played on Naruto's lips as she scanned the various boutiques for Tamaki's and Mirio's parents. It was nearly time for them to go back home but throughout their walk in the shopping complex, Naruto couldn't find any glimpse of black hair. A quick glance at Mirio and Tamaki told her that they were also concerned if the frowns on their face were of any indication.

_Crash._

Naruto jumped up and swirled her head around as the shop window glass smashed into tiny pieces. Blue eyes widened as a cheetah-like lady dashed away from the boutique, her hand clutching what appeared to be an expensive-looking jewelry. _That's bad news._ She darted her eyes to her friends, who were now frozen in place.

"_Someone call the heroes!"_ A man screamed, dashing out of the shop. His whole body trembled and his breaths came out in rapid succession as his eyes locked on the lady who was still making a break for it. _"That thief stole my jewlrey!"_

The desperate cries made Naruto pause as the other pedestrians took out their phones to call the cops. _If we wait for the heroes or the police to come then they won't reach on time._ She clenched her jaws together and brought her hands together, directing the flow of her chakra into her legs.

_I will get his stuff back!_

"What the hell are you planning to do?" Tamaki demanded, grabbing hold of her arm. Naruto turned her head around and blinked at the sight of indigo eyes turning serious. _I think this is the first time that he didn't stutter a whole sentence._ She would have teased him if it weren't for the situation at hand.

"I'm going to help that woman!"

Mirio grabbed hold of her other hand. "You are going to get into huge trouble if you go and get his merchandize back! We aren't allowed to use our Quirks in public!"

"So what?" She snarled, yanking both of her arms away from her friends. "That man lost something valuable to him and I can't just sit there and see that criminal walk away with his stuff."

"Think logically Naruto—"

She didn't know what Tamaki said next because Naruto dashed away from them. The crowds of civilians parted way and Naruto could make out a woman with a cheetah's face pushing and shoving people away as she tried to make a break for it. Some people screamed while other people waved their hands at her, screaming words that she couldn't hear.

Maybe they were screaming for her to not chase the woman?

The woman turned her head around, yellow eyes growing large as Naruto picked up the pace. Her blond hair slapped her cheeks and the tight ponytail that she made for herself seemed to becoming looser and looser. _I have no time to get back my hair tie!_ Her hair flew in all directions as her orange scrunchie dropped down to the ground.

_I've got her now!_ Only a few meters away but Naruto knew she could tackle the woman. With a final surge of chakra to her leg, the blond-haired girl leapt at the woman and pushed her down to the ground. The woman squirmed around and brought her hand out, elongating her nails to the point that it resembled claws.

The cheetah-like woman propelled herself forward, claw-like nail reaching out towards her and Naruto turned her head to the side. Wind slapped her cheeks and there was an icy-chill running down her spine. _I have a feeling someone is cursing me._ She tightened her grip on the woman and smashed the woman's head against the ground.

"_Did you see that?"_

Naruto blinked and tilted her head as she dropped the unconscious woman down to the ground. Her blue eyes fixated on the diamond necklace in her hand before darting to the crowds of people that surrounded her. Several eyes stared at her with wonder while other people began to clap, their lips curled into a large smile.

"_She had no problem catching up with that criminal."_ She darted her eyes to the man in the corner and felt her lips curled into a frown as brown eyes flashed with eagerness and desire. A chill ran down her spine as another set of eyes flashed before her eyes. _Let me train her!_ That man who worked with the Hokage had made that comment with the same type of eyes as that man.

_I think I brought more attention to myself._

"_She looks like she is in middle-school."_ Another person commented, tilting his head at her. "_But for a kid her age to do something like that, shows she has a lot of potential to become an amazing hero. Not a lot of people would have done what she had done."_

Naruto felt her shoulders tremble as more and more people began to compliment her for her actions. Why were these people being so good to her? Didn't they think she was terrible for what she did? She broke the rules of this country so why were they impressed with her? She chewed on her bottom lip and looked at the unconscious woman before her.

Would they have praised her if she hadn't manage to beat this woman?

"What the hell happened here!" Naruto looked up as the crowds of people parted ways to reveal a man wearing a costume storming at her. His beady eyes fixated on the unconscious woman before fixating his eyes on her. "I was told that there was a villain causing mayhem in this mall."

One of the pedesterians cleared her throat and pointed at Naruto. "She took care of it."

_I'm guessing from that surprise look in his eyes…I'm not going to get into huge trouble?_ She chewed on her bottom lip as the hero looked down at her with unreadable eyes. There was no heat from his eyes so that meant that she might be safe for now.

"Where are your parents, young lady?"

Nope, she was definitely in trouble.

* * *

"_While your daughter managed to stop the burglary with her Quirk, it is still illegal for her to use it in public!"_

The loud scolding of the hero bounced off the walls of the police station as several eyes fixated on Naruto and Kazue. Tamaki steadied his trembling arms while Mirio frowned at the sight before them. The four of them had been in the station for the last 20 minutes but the scolding from the hero didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon.

_Not that I can blame them._ Tamaki sighed and fixated his eyes on the blond-haired girl, who kept wincing and rubbing the back of her neck as more and more people scolded her for her actions. There was not a single scratch on her, no bruise or anything to indicate that his friend chased after a dangerous thief.

"She was so reckless." He hunched his shoulders and stared at the sheepish girl in front of him. "She didn't stop to think for one minute of the possibility that the criminal might have been too much for her to handle."

Mirio tore his eyes away from the scene and locked eyes on him. Sweat dribbled down the side of his friend's face, reminding Tamaki that his friend had been also concern for what happened earlier. The blond-haired boy smiled and looked up at the ceiling. "But it is a good thing Naruto didn't get hurt."

"She was lucky this time," he grumbled. "What happens if she does this again?"

Images of a bruised up girl flashed before his eyes alongside a corpse that made him want to hurl. He gulped back the bile and looked at the various images of wanted criminals. _What if that criminal actually injured her?_ His arms trembled at the thought and Tamaki forced himself to inhale.

"Do you think that she is going to do this again even though the Hero scolded her?" Mirio tilted his head. Blue eyes flashed with doubt while Tamaki stared at Naruto. _She is like you._ The words were on the tip of his tongue but he held himself back from spitting those words out. There was a difference between Mirio and Naruto.

Mirio used his head while Naruto just charged in without thinking about her life.

"She doesn't care about her own safety as long as she can protect people." He replied. It was clear from her words that Naruto really didn't prioritize her own safety. Maybe it was something he should admire but Tamaki could feel his stomach churning at the thought of the girl getting injured. He didn't want to see her injured.

He didn't want anything to happen to her.

The blond-haired boy frowned. "But that is a job of a hero, isn't it? All Might is the same."

_But All Might is a Hero while we are only students._ He hunched his shoulders and forced himself to nod before looking down at his own hands. It was smooth, nothing like the slight calluses that he had seen on Naruto's palm. _She has been training everyday._ Maybe that was why Naruto thought she could do what she did. She probably thought she could apply her training to a real-life situation.

But training was different from real life.

"_Look kid I'll admit that with your Quirk and skills, you probably are good enough to become a sidekick at this stage but what you did was dangerous!"_ The hero's words echoed in the silent police station as Mirio and Tamaki jerked their heads at those words. _A side kick, huh?_ Tamaki curled his lips into a small smile while his blond-haired friend frowned.

He should feel jealous that Naruto was complimented for her skills but Tamaki could only gaze at the smile that came out of Naruto's lips. A warmth filled his stomach alongside another feeling that he couldn't really put his finger on. _I'm glad that she is getting complimented for her work._ He relaxed his shoulders and looked down at the floor.

"Y'know Tamaki, I'm kinda jealous of Naruto." Indigo eyes widened and Tamaki jerked his head at Mirio. His friend had a large smile plastered on his face and he had his eyes fixated on Naruto. "She is younger than us by a couple of months but she already did something amazing."

"_I think you can be cool."_

Warm blue eyes flashed before his eyes alongside a smile that still made his heart flutter. _She has a lot of faith in us._ Tamaki chewed on his bottom lip and stared at the blond-haired girl in front of them. Even though her Quirk was probably stronger than their own Quirks, Naruto seemed to believe that Mirio and him had amazing Quirks. He hunched his shoulders and cleared his throat.

"We have to catch up to her, don't we?" Mirio blinked and Tamaki clenched his hand into a fist. "If Naruto does this again then we have to help her."

The blond-haired boy curled his lips into a smile and a loud laugh escaped from his lips. "It won't be fair for her to do all the hard work for us, right?"

He bobbed his head and stared at the smiling blond-haired girl who sat right in front of them. With the sun hitting her hair in that angle, Tamaki could almost picture a halo over her head. _But she isn't perfect and being a Hero isn't easy._ He could see that from the television screen that blasted the images of a few heroes that lacked a true smile on their face.

"She won't be able to smile if she does all the hard work." Tamaki muttered as his eyes locked onto the image of a scowling Endeavour. "If she worked by herself then she will have a huge burden on her shoulders."

Mirio nodded and fixated his eyes on Naruto. "Naruto looks her best when she smiles, doesn't she Tamaki?"

The indigo-haired boy flushed a bright shade of red and looked everywhere but at his friend's eyes. _There is nothing wrong with what he asked._ He forced himself to nod his head as his eyes fixated on the blond-haired girl. Maybe it had been the way Mirio asked the question that made him react the way he did. He nodded. Yup, this would make sense.

"Tamaki, you really care about Naruto don't you?" Mirio asked with a knowing smile playing on his lips.

"O-Of course I do! Naruto is our friend!"

* * *

**A/N: Thank you for reading this chapter and I would like to hear your thoughts on the chapter. Do you think I should do a time skip for the next chapter? Or do you wish to continue with the Trio time in middle school?**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourties and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter.**

* * *

"So what do you want to talk me about, Principal?"

Naruto rubbed the back of her neck as her blue eyes fixated on the woman standing right beside the Principal. Old was the first thing that came to her mind as she inspected the woman before her. Serious was another thing. Anyone who did not give a smile had to be either a serious, scary or both. Judging from the way her principal kept darting his eyes between them, she guessed she was both.

It was never good news when a scary, serious person came to see you or…maybe that was her own experience.

"Uzumaki-san," the principal cleared his throat and the whiskered-girl straightened her back. "This lady is a very important person who wants to talk to you about your future."

Naruto blinked. Her future? Why would some lady care about her future? As far as she was concerned, she was a nobody in this city. _Well I am not really a nobody, am I? People have been congratulating me for my actions._ The thought almost made her puff her chest and grinned. But she held herself back. Many people might be happy for what she did that day but this lady could be like those people in the police station.

The thought of another scolding made her hunch her shoulders.

"Am I in trouble?" asked Naruto. "Because if I am, I have already gotten a huge scolding from—"

"I'm not here to scold you for your heroic actions during the weekend," the woman reassured her. Naruto gawked as the woman's turquoise eyes gleamed with a hunger that almost made her want to squirm. She didn't squirm of course because that would be just plain rude. Instead she just scrunched her eyebrows and fixated her eyes on the woman.

"If you aren't here to scold me, then why are you here?" she asked. The gleam in the woman's eyes brightened and Naruto glanced at the Principal. For the first time since she entered this room, the man's eyes gleamed with excitement and hope. Wait. What were those two planning for her? If she was not going to get scolded then why did they bring her here?

She had finally understood what the hell her teacher was teaching her for the last few weeks and now they dragged her here not to scold her?

This place was just plain weird.

"Uzumaki-san, do you want to be trained to be a hero?" The woman questioned her. "Do you want to have the certainty that by the time you graduate middle school, your future of being a hero is guaranteed?"

Blue eyes widened and Naruto tried to close her mouth as her mind tried to process what the woman had just told her. What did she mean by that? The whole thing sounded complicated. But did she mean she could be a hero as soon as she finished Middle School? That would be awesome. No stress. No worry. There would be no exam for her to worry about.

It was perfect.

But something nagged at her and she didn't know what it was.

"Why are you making such a nice offer to me?" Naruto asked. She kept her tone steady and her back straight as her eyes focused on the woman. Surprise lit the woman's eyes as if she didn't expect her to ask this question. Naruto couldn't blame her. Most people would just agree without a second thought. But she didn't know what to think of this.

When she had been in Konoha, no one would make an offer like this to her. An idiot should never be allowed to graduate early but these people wanted her. Just the knowledge that they wanted to make her dream come true made her heart soar. But there was always that sensation inside of her head. _What if this was all trick?_ She shouldn't just say yes immediately.

That was what got her into trouble with Mizuki-sensei.

"It is not every day you can find a child your age that can accomplish what you just accomplished," the woman explained. "Most children wouldn't be able to fight off a Villain as quickly as you did."

Naruto bobbed her head and smiled. "I know…that is what makes me awesome."

The smile on the woman's face widened and the whiskered girl looked down at her hands. _I might sound really confident but what if I'm over my head with this?_ She took in a deep breath. Why was it so hard for her to just accept this opportunity right in front of her? There might never be another chance like this. A chance where an adult believed in her capabilities.

"We can make you even more amazing, Uzumaki-san," the woman said. Naruto snapped her head back up as turquoise eyes watched her with the seriousness that almost reminded Naruto of one of the Hokage's advisors. "We have a special program that you can enroll in that can guarantee that you can become a Hero by the time you are eighteen."

_I won't ever get a chance like this ever again._ Her fingers tingled and her heart raced against her chest at this thought. Yes. That should be her immediate answer. But what about Mirio? And Tamaki? Would she have to leave those two behind? They were her first friends in Japan. Mirio and his Dad took her in when they did not need to take her in.

But this could be her only chance of becoming a Hero.

"If I take this special program…will I be separated from my friends?"

The words hung in the air and Naruto focused her attention on the floor. Her throat burned at the idea of not seeing Tamaki or even Mirio during this program. _But at least I can be certain that I can join them as heroes…I will just be one step ahead of them._ The thought made her relax her shoulders. If she thought of it in that way then things did not seem to be too bad for her.

She would be able to catch up to them.

"You won't be able to see them everyday but you can have your day offs," the woman said. "And they will always be a phonecall away for you."

That should make her smile but her heart still wavered at the idea.

"Will I have to pay for this special education program?"

"We will sponsor you."

_Everything sounds too good to be true_. Naruto sucked in a deep breath and steadied her trembling arms. Her future would be a guarantee if she took this program. She would never have a repeat of what she did in Konoha if she took this offer. But it also meant that she wouldn't be able to see Tamaki and Mirio everyday. They would be separated and just the thought made her heart scream in agony.

They were her friends, her precious friends but being a hero was her dream now. A decision like this shouldn't be made just because of her stupid desires. She could not have the best of both worlds. _I have to choose one over the other._ The knowledge numbed her and Naruto looked up at the ceiling.

She didn't know which one to choose.

"Can I think about the offer?"

The woman nodded.

"We will give you three days to think about it, Uzumaki-san."

* * *

"So why did the Principal call you out, Naruto?"

Naruto tore her eyes away from her lunch box and looked at Tamaki and Mirio. Both of her friends tilted their head to the side and had their eyes focused on her. Concern shone through their eyes alongside fear. _I guess they are worried that I got into trouble._ The thought should make her smile but it only made her grimace.

This really was not helping her in making her decision. If anything, it was making it harder for her to choose between the offer and them. _If I was in Konoha, I would have said yes without a second thought._ Naruto sighed. But if she was in Konoha, she had only one friend and that was Hinata-chan. There would be no one else that would make her hesitate about her plans for the future.

But those two made her hesitate and that made them special to her. _I should tell them, shouldn't I?_ She scratched her neck. Those two would probably give her a better idea of what to do. They would probably tell her that she was making it into a bigger deal than it already was.

Of course to be sure, she should tell them.

"There was a lady who said that if I joined her program then there is a guarantee that I will become a hero," Naruto admitted. The words hung in the air and the whiskered girl darted her eyes at the two boys. Mirio gawked. His blue eyes shone with excitement and tiniest bit of jealously but there was also pride in his eyes. A smile played on her lips and she shifted her eyes to Tamaki.

His reaction made her pause.

Unlike Mirio, Naruto could see her friend hanging his shoulders at her words. His eyes that were usually filled with nervous energy, was now filled with so much concern and sadness. She poked her tongue against her chest and knitted her eyebrows together. Why was he so concern? Did he think it would be a bad idea for her to agree to this? Maybe it was a bad idea.

If she agreed to do it then it would be a long time before they hanged out together again.

_But what if I do what Sasuke's brother did? If I do really well then I can graduate early from the program!_ She bobbed her head. That would be the best idea for her. If she actually passed whatever the program entitled then Naruto could see her friends more. Sure they would be in high school while she was out working…but it would be better than nothing.

"D-Did you say yes?" Tamaki stuttered. Naruto pressed her lips into a thin line and looked away as both sets of eyes focused on her. The fear in his voice made her heart flutter for a strange reason. Maybe it was because it sounded like he was scared for her. Yeah. That was why her heart fluttered. But it was a terrible reason because she should never delude herself when it came to Tamaki.

He wasn't scared for her.

"I said I will think about it," she admitted. Mirio frowned and darted his eyes at Tamaki. Naruto raised a single eyebrow and followed his gaze, only to blink at the sight before her. Her blue-haired friend had clenched his hands into a fist and his whole body trembled like he was upset about something. Wait, it would make sense if he was upset with her.

If she took the offer then it would mean they couldn't be heroes at the same time.

"Why didn't you say yes immediately?"

Naruto gazed at their smiling classmates. Tamaki asked a good question but the answer was just so simple in her mind. For the first time in her life, she had friends. Good friends. When she had doubts about whether or not she would look good in a dress, they reassured her. When she pretended to be confident, Tamaki had been the one to call her out for it. Mirio gave her clothes and played with her.

The word yes was just too hard for her to answer when she thought of them.

"If I took the offer…I won't be able to see you guys often."

Mirio frowned and exchanged glances with Tamaki before looking back at her. Naruto forced herself to smile. It sounded silly when she said it out loud. _You aren't agreeing to the offer of a lifetime because you want to stick by their side._ Just thinking about it made her want to pout. If either of them had this opportunity, she would tell them to go for it.

But she was pathetic for not doing what she would tell them what to do.

"S-So you are still thinking about it because of us?" Tamaki stuttered.

She nodded her head and pushed her sausage around before stealing a glance at the two boys. "I also have my doubts about it?"

"What kind of doubts?" Miro asked. Naruto shut her eyes as the rice flew smacked her right in the face. Wiping the rice off of her face, the blonde puffed her cheeks at her blond-haired friend and he offered her an apologetic smile. _He makes it hard for me to stay angry with him when he smiles like that._ She flashed him a grin and fleck her own rice at him.

If he could hit her face with rice then she could do the same to him.

"Naruto, what are you worried about?" Tamaki asked, drawing her attention away from Mirio.

A sigh escaped from her lips and Naruto rubbed the sides of her head. "I guess I'm worried that I might not become an amazing hero like Endeavour or All Might. What if I become a hero and people dislike me? I…I don't think I can handle it."

It was one thing for her to be hated in Konoha but it would be terrible for her to be hated here. With Konoha, she had gotten so used to people looking at her with cold eyes that…it did not bother her anymore. But this place was different for her. People liked her. The teachers were amazing to her and people did not look at her like she was a monster.

If the whole thing changed…

Well she did not know how she could handle it.

"You will be an amazing hero, Naruto," said Tamaki. Naruto blinked and swirled her head at the boy. There was a nervous smile playing on his lips but his eyes shone with a lot of confidence. _Well I guess he always was confident about me._ She smiled and looked up at the clear blue sky before stealing a glance at her two friends,

Just because she failed at being a kunoichi, didn't mean she could fail at becoming a hero right?

"A lot of people cheered for you after you got back that necklace," Mirio pointed out. "There are probably going to be a lot of people cheering you on when you debut as a hero…don't you think?"

Well when Mirio put it in that way…

"Do you really believe that these people will love me?"

Because that would always be her biggest fear.

* * *

"So Mirio told me that you got an offer."

Focusing her eyes on her homework, Naruto bobbed her head. It was probably cowardly of her but she couldn't look Kazue in the eyes. If she just looked at him then she knew she would be greeted with concerned eyes. It was already bad enough that both Tamaki and Mirio were encouraging her to go after the offer but if Kazue told her to do it…

Well she didn't know what to do.

"That is right," Naruto admitted. She steadied her pencil and allowed her eyes to trace the kanji of the question before her. Maybe if she kept her eyes focused on the words then the black-haired man would get the idea that she was not ready to talk about it just yet. Because what could she say? That she was uncertain about whether to make her new dream come true or not?

Why was she so doubtful about herself?

Was it because she finally felt the warmth of a family? Kazue might not have adopted her but Naruto always thought that the things she did with Kazue and Mirio were things that people did with their family. If she just agreed to take the job then she no longer had a home with them. The thought of losing this little piece of heaven made her heart die a little.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Kazue asked, taking a seat right beside her. "Mirio told me that you haven't decided about whether to take the offer or not. He told me about some of your doubts but do you have something else weighing you down?"

Naruto allowed her fingers to draw around the edges of her homework as her eyes focused on Kazue. There was another thing on her mind. It had been on her mind since the moment that woman gave her the offer. _But would he understand?_ She honestly doubt it. But Naruto trusted the man sitting beside her.

If there was anyone that she might be willing to talk to then it would be him.

"There was a job that I _really _wanted in my village and I failed at getting that job," Naruto whispered. She pushed back the tears that threatened to overflow. This was not the time for her to cry. "Not many people expected me to get that job and they were right. I did one good deed and these people think that I can be an amazing hero…why?"

Kazue didn't answer her immediately. He just sat there for a good couple of seconds before wrapping his arm around her, drawing her into a hug. It should make her smile but she could feel the tears coming out of her eyes from such a nice gesture. She should stop crying. She wasn't a baby anymore. She was a strong girl so why the hell was she crying about this?

She was better than this.

"I guess those people didn't really see how wonderful you are," Kazue answered. "And they didn't see the vast potential that you have. Those people wouldn't have made you that offer if they didn't believe that you can be an amazing hero."

Naruto sniffed and pushed herself off of the man. She blew her nose against her arm, not caring if it would disgust Kazue. That had to be the nicest thing an adult had ever said to her. It was a lot nicer than the Hokage, who only reassured her that she would become a kunoichi. _He is actually comforting me, not saying empty words._ She hiccupped and rubbed her eyes.

Right.

It was time for her to stop crying.

"If I take this offer then there will be a lot of pressure for me to do well, isn't there?" Naruto asked softly.

Kazue nodded. "It will be very _stressful_ if you take it, but do you think it will be worth the stress?"

_Worth the stress?_ Naruto laid her hand down on the table and looked up at the ceiling. That was the first time someone asked her that question. All Mirio and Tamaki talked to her about were her doubts. Sure they tried to cheer her on but neither of them brought up the fact that it might be stressful for her. But then again why would they? The three of them thought about the joy of the job.

Not once had they thought about how stressful it might become for them.

"What do you mean exactly?" She finally asked.

Kazue sighed. "Do you think that you will be able to handle the responsibilities if you take the offer? Or do you think that you will regret it if you don't take the offer?"

Regret? Yeah she would regret it. There were a lot of things that she regretted not doing when she had the chance. She never got to prank Neji for being an asshole to Hinata. She never took her studies seriously and that was something she regretted. Never pushing the Hokage to tell her about her parents was another thing she regretted.

Because as much as she wanted to be around Tamaki and Mirio, she was never going to take find another chance like this.

"I'm going to take it," Naruto declared. "But I guess I'm going to miss Tamaki and Mirio. I mean once the lady comes again on Thursday then I am going to lose my two best-friends in this place."

The black-haired man chuckled and ruffled his hair.

"You won't lose them," he reassured her. "If anything, you are probably going to make them work even harder to achieve their goals and until they reach their own goals…they will be cheering you on just like I will."

That was more comforting than Naruto would ever admit to him.

(_That was the last serious conversation Naruto had with Kazue. The next time that the two of them would talk would be when Mirio was in his final year of High School and the Hero Public Safety Commission gave her very first mission)._

* * *

**A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter. **


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

**Author Note: I would like to thank everyone who added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone who reviewed the last chapter.**

* * *

(_Five years later)_

"_I barely walked out of the doors of your school and you have already decided what will be my first mission? Y'know I feel so special, President!"_

Naruto plastered on a smile as she took a seat right in front of the woman, who had given her the offer of a lifetime. She knew she should be a little bit more respectful to the President of the Public Safety Commission but respect had never been her thing. There was also the fact she had been ready to race out of the school and head straight to Kazue's house.

She should have known better than to believe that the President would allow her to bask in the delight of graduating early. Her senpai warned her about this but like a naïve little girl, Naruto didn't believe the woman would have found a mission for her to do._ I thought I could just relax for a day or two before making my debut._ Well it was nice for her to have a job.

Even her own agency was being funded by this woman right in front of her.

"This is a very special mission," The President informed her as she slid a thick brown file towards her. Naruto blinked and the smile on her face faded at this new piece of information coming from the woman. If the higher-up say that this was a special mission then it meant she couldn't make things light and easy. "A couple had their 9-month baby taken away from them inside their highly secured house. Nothing of value was taken except for baby."

_This sounds like a rescue mission instead of a combat mission._ Naruto furrowed her eyebrows together and flipped open the file. It was not like rescue mission weren't nice but the Public Safety Commission chose her because of her combat ability. _With an ability like yours, you will be more popular than me and you are more likely to take the number one spot._ That was what her senpai told her when the President introduced them to each other.

While her senpai had been heavily trained for spying and rescuing missions, she had been trained in missions that required combat. Spying was also taught to her alongside seduction but she learnt those things in her time in the Academy. _They only watch me as I learnt the forbidden jutsu from the forbidden scroll._ She sighed and shook her head before skim-reading through the file.

At first glance, the whole thing seemed like the classic burglary case but what stood out to Naruto was the fact that there had been some expensive items left lying around in the living room. _Mum and Dad were locked up in the bedroom alongside their 5-year-old son._ Quirks had been used to threaten them or so the police statement in the file told her.

What really interested her was why would someone kidnap a 9-month-old baby.

"Are the police certain that this was an attempted burglary case?" Naruto traced the smiling baby before looking back at the blank-faced President. She tilted her head and stroke her chin as her eyes fixated on the middle-aged woman in front of her. "Are you sure that there couldn't be other motives for this case?"

The woman only pressed her lips into a thin line and lifted only one thin eyebrow at her. _What? I can't even question things now? The whole thing feels fishy to me._ A baby was taken but not the child who already had their Quirk revealed to the world. Anything expensive hadn't been taken away nor did she any _real_ attempt of something being stolen.

From her knowledge of burglary, an expensive watch that could be worth more than any expensive car that the President owned would be more valuable then an adorable baby girl.

"We have our suspicions that there could be more to the case," The President admitted. Naruto nodded and flipped through the various evidence and notes in the file before fixating her eyes on the woman, who leaned her body forward. "But whether or not that this was more then an attempted burglary, you need to find their daughter."

_I know._ Naruto bit back the words that threatened to come out of her mouth and instead chose to look back at the file. Details of the incident were written but anything about the parents past was hidden from her. That made things really difficult for her. If this was a normal case where it was just an ordinary break-in then it wouldn't be such a big deal for her.

But there was a missing baby and the 17-year-old knew that the more time passed, the harder and less likely that the baby was alive.

"Do you have any background on the parents?" She flipped through the file as the President kept her eyes locked onto her. _Maybe one of the parents had a gambling problem?_ A frown played on her lips. From her own time in wandering through the streets of Konoha, Naruto knew that certain _unsavory_ figures would take away a child as a way to get the parent to pay back the money owed.

The President thinned her lips. "The mother of the baby is also the illegitimate daughter of a high-ranking government official."

The frown on her lips deepened and Naruto squinted her eyes to read the mother's maiden name._ Watanabe._ That did not sound familiar to her at all but then again she never bothered to learn the names of officials. Why would she? They bored her to death and she was always forced to learn how to control her tongue even if one of them got grabby with her.

"No ransom so far, right?" Naruto questioned. The President bobbed her head and the whiskered teen curled her lips into a very thin line as she processed the information that had been given to her. No ransom was a rather odd thing. Why would someone steal a baby and not ask for ransom? Something just did not make much sense if you asked her.

The fact they gave her such an interesting mission as her debut also didn't make much sense to her. _I might have tried hard during my time with them but the fact that the grandfather is a high-ranking guy means I can't fuck up._ The whole intelligence thing was more of her senpai specialty then her. The only reason she passed was because she wanted to be a hero before Mirio and Tamaki.

"Why are you giving me such an important case to me?" The President raised her eyebrow and the 17-year-old furrowed her eyebrows together as her finger traced the photo of the smiling baby. "Keigo-senpai is way better suited for this kind of mission."

The middle-aged woman thinned her lips at the mention of Keigo. Her turquoise eyes did not look one bit happy at the fact that she mentioned the actual name of her senpai and Naruto dug her nails against the palm of her hand. This was what they signed up for. A world where their names would be erased from the system and where no one would ever know their name. This was the life she chose for herself.

"Remember the rules that we put in place, you—"

"—I know the rules," Naruto declared with a fake cheer to her tone. She plastered on a smile as her eyes darted to the window, where she could see the beaming faces of the civilians, before looking back at the woman. "The moment I stepped into your special school, my name is no longer Uzumaki Naruto. You and my fellow heroes will only know me by the hero name that you chose for me. But Keigo and me? We are still human."

_We aren't tools for you to use and discard._ She exhaled and looked down at the file in her hands before looking back at the grim-faced woman in front of her. The impulsive part of her wanted to scream it at her but Naruto knew better than to do this. Her career rested in this woman's hands and until she had the support of the public, she would have to play by her rules.

"I'm giving you this as your debut mission because it will look impressive for the public and will help you make a name for yourself," The President informed her. Naruto nodded and tucked the file underneath her arm as the blond-haired woman fixated on her. "If you can solve this case and bring that baby back to her parents then this will help kick-jump your career. You are the one that will take over if All Might retires."

Naruto only allowed a smile to play on her lips as the President locked her eyes on her. _A good replacement for All Might for when he retires. _

They didn't even know if the man would retire but the commission believed that it would be soon. The fact that the man decided to be a teacher in Yuuei High didn't help lessen their belief that it would be time for All Might to hand the title to someone else.

They wanted her to take over but the whiskered teen had no plans of becoming the same type of Hero as All Might.

* * *

_I haven't seen Kazue-ojisan since the Public Safety Commission picked me up from here._

Naruto shifted left and right as her blue eyes flickered from the door to her luggage. Before she officially left for the private academy, Kazue informed her that she always had a home with him and Mirio. That she could come back at any time but that was around five years ago. Things were different now. Maybe the man thought differently after not seeing her in five years.

She exhaled and steadied her trembling arms. _I will just ask him to let me stay with him until I have enough money to get my own place._ The Commission told her that it would look very weird if she had been given money without making her debut. They told her that she could always ask Keigo for a place to stay but the whiskered teen knew that it would bring questions.

Her senpai had already risen through the ranks quite quickly during the years that he graduated.

Taking another deep breath, Naruto plastered on a confident smile and pressed the doorbell right beside her. _If I do enough jobs then I will definitely become a hero that is loved by the public._ She had the meeting with the police tomorrow to make sure that would happen. All they had to do was redo the questioning of the parents and then she would know where to begin.

If she managed to locate the baby then her hero name would be splashed through the papers and then more jobs could be coming her way. _Finding that baby is almost like a test._ It was just like the test from the Academy except this time around, she was not going to mess it time she would direct all of her energy to locate the child.

The door clicked open and Naruto straightened her back as the door slowly opened. It was actually happening. She was actually going to meet the man who took her in when he didn't have to take her in. Was it supposed to be this nerve-wrecking? She hadn't felt her heart raced like this until the day the Public Safety Commission gave her, her hero liscense.

"Who is…Naruto!"

The whiskered teen squeaked and blinked as Kazue swoop her in for a hug. Of all the reactions she expected to get from him, the last thing she expected was the man hugging her so tightly that her lungs burned from the lack of air. She expected him not to recognize her since it had been five years since she left his household to become a hero.

"Kazue-ojisan, I miss you too but I need to breath!" Naruto wheezed. She clutched her chest and took in several deep breaths as the black-haired man offered her an apologetic look. This only made the whiskered teen beamed at the man. It was not like she didn't enjoy getting hugged by the man but it was the first time that someone would hug her like this.

She thought with the limited time that they spent together that the man would simply treat her like another person in the street. But that wide smile on his lips alongside the sigh of relief from his throat told her that Kazue had been worried about her during the five years that she was gone. _I wish I contacted him more._ But training had been pain in the neck and the limited free time that she did have, were spent on her bed.

"I'm guessing that you did what you promised to Mirio and Tamaki and graduated early?" Kazue asked. The whiskered teen bobbed her head and blinked when the man proceeded to drag her inside of his house. _It still feels slightly strange._ Even though she knew he missed her, she still wasn't used to the knowledge that an adult could care about her.

The people in the Public Safety Commission cared about her but not like Kazue. _Like Keigo-senpai would tell me, the moment they see no use for either of us then they would throw us under the bus._ She didn't like the idea but she would figure out what to do for when that day came. Maybe she would open a ramen stand or try to pursue a degree in psychology.

She did have the best scores when it came to that subject after all.

"When I make a promise then you can bet your ass that I will work hard to accomplish that promise," Naruto replied, throwing a smile at the black-haired man as they stood in the living room. The middle-aged man laughed while the whiskered teen made her way to the fireplace mantel. There were so many pictures but the ones that stood out to her were the graduation photo of Tamaki and Mirio.

Naruto smiled at the wide-smile on Mirio's face and laughed slightly at the nervous eyes of Tamaki. _Is he still jittery? _She hoped the older boy still had the habit of getting nervous. It was probably one of the most adorable traits that the boy had if you asked her but things could change. She changed slightly and maybe the same could be said about the two boys.

Her blue eyes fixated on the nervous smile on Tamaki's face and Naruto quirked her lips into a smile. _You will be an amazing hero._ It might have been five years but those words gave her a lot of courage and hope whenever things got difficult for her during the time that the Public Safety Commission trained her.

The boy didn't know it but he reminded her that even though she failed at becoming a kunoichi, she couldn't fail in becoming a hero.

"They missed you a lot," Kazue commented from behind her. Naruto twisted her head around and raised a single eyebrow at the knowing smile that played on the man's lips. "Even though you called them whenever you could, they still wanted to see you. _Tamaki_ especially worried about whether or not you were doing fine."

The blonde raised a single eyebrow at the way the man stressed her friend's name. _Why does he act like it is a big deal? Tamaki always worries about me and Mirio. It doesn't mean anything._ That was a fact but her heart did skip a little at the knowledge that the older boy was constantly worried about her. But then again, this was also pretty normal too.

Just because she liked the fact Tamaki worried about her, didn't mean anything.

"I keep telling them that I was fine," Naruto retorted. Kazue hummed and bobbed his head but that sharp glint in his eyes told her that he wasn't totally fooled by her words. _I'm fine._ Nothing in the way she trained had been harsh when she thought about it. The Public Safety Commission didn't try to make her hide her emotions and she made friends during her time there. "I don't know why Tamaki didn't believe me."

Kazue eyed her. "Tamaki has always been perceptive when it comes to you, which is something that Mirio fails to do."

"You know he also overthink things and Mirio is just excited that I might become a hero before he could even graduate from high school," she pointed out with puffed cheeks. _Tamaki tends to let things get into his head and that makes him get flustered._ She poked her tongue against her cheek and looked to the photo of Mirio and Tamaki during their Sports Festival.

Every time she would think that Tamaki would be that close to winning the Sports Festival and then she would see him getting defeated near the quarter-finals or the finals. _I know Mirio and him can do something amazing._ They were great people with amazing Quirks but something always seemed to be holding them back.

Kazue hummed and tilted his head. "Now that you have graduated, what are your plans? Have you been working with anyone while you were studying to be a hero?"

"I worked with Hawks for a bit," Naruto admitted. Blue eyes widened at her admission and the whiskered teen quirked her lips into a smile as she recalled the various things that her senior would make her do. _God, I didn't know whether I was being his sidekick or if he was using me as an excuse to get coffee breaks._ "But I'm going to open up my own agency and I already have got a mission to do."

"That quickly?" Kazue asked, eyebrows shooting up to his hairline. The whiskered teen bobbed her head and offered him a smile. It was probably rare for someone without much money and not being a well-known sidekick to jump start their career but the Public Safety Commission made things easier for her.

There was no need for her to save up money to open up an agency when they provided the funds that she needed. She was her own boss up to a point but that was better than nothing when Naruto thought about it. There were missions that they would give her and then there were so many missions that she could pick for herself.

It was not like she lacked complete control over her actions and they couldn't always control her.

"Yup," Naruto finally replied as she took a seat on the couch. She clasped her hands together and focused her eyes on the ceiling as Kazue continued to regard her with concern eyes. _I will need to look over the files again and see what the Police missed._ If she used her clones then it would be done in a matter of minutes. "But the downside is that even though I have my building ready, I need to do recruiting as well as find a place to live so…"

"You know I always told you that you have a home here," Kazue reminded her. Naruto smiled slightly as the black-haired man placed both of his hands on his knees and locked eyes with her. "I haven't changed my mind about that even if you rarely contacted me doing the time that you were there."

The whiskered teen felt her lower lip wobbled as those blue eyes continued to offer her a reassuring look. _I hoped to hear those words but it feels different to actually hear them again._ People weren't always nice and there were always going to be terrible people out there, but Kazue reminded her again and again that there were decent people out there.

"So where is Mirio?" Naruto asked. Tamaki was on the tip of her tongue too but the whiskered teen knew if she asked about the boy again then Kazue would tease her about it. This was not an exaggeration because that twinkle in his eyes suggested that the man knew who was the other boy in her mind. There was nothing special about the bond between her and Tamaki.

They were friends just like how she was friends with Mirio.

"Unlike you, Mirio and Tamaki are still in school and today is their first day of school," Kazue reminded her. Naruto only offered a shrug as she picked up the apple in the bowl. School? Yeah, she should have realized that school started again today. The only good thing about graduating early was the fact she didn't have to deal with the horror called school.

Well school hadn't been too bad when she thought about it. No one taunted her about not being able to read properly and the people of the Public Safety Commission helped her overcome the reading difficulty that the teachers in the Academy never bothered to correct. _The only pain in the neck was that they always made the question way too difficult._ Her brain always became dead with their questions.

"It's their final year, right?"

Kazue bobbed his head. "Yeah, time flies doesn't it? Just a few years ago, they found you in the alley and now here the three of you are. You are going to be having your debut and the boys are in their final year of high school."

The blonde smiled and chewed on her apple as the man continued to talk about how much time passed. Five whole years passed but it hadn't been that quick for her. It had been agonizing for her. Every day she would count down the days for when she could escape from there and be with her friends again. It might have been her choice and she didn't regret it, but…she wanted to see her friends every once in a while.

Well she couldn't whine over spill milk now and she could always see them after they were done with school.

* * *

"So has Naruto contacted you?"

Tamaki jerked his head away from the ground and swirled his head at Mirio. The school day was over and since neither him, Mirio or even Nejire had any work to do, the three of them decided to go over to Mirio's favorite ramen stand to celebrate the start of their final year. The three of them were supposed to talk about how weird it was for them to be in different classes, not whether or not Naruto contacted him.

He didn't want to think of how strange it was for the blonde not to call him. Most of the time, the whiskered teen would talk to him for at least ten minutes before telling him that she had homework to do. Video calls weren't allowed which was really terrible. He could only picture how the blonde looked like now that she was seventeen.

Even though they talked in the phone, it still wasn't the same of actually talking her face-to-face.

"N-No." He finally replied. Mirio blinked but did not look very surprised to know that Naruto hadn't contacted him, only offering him a smile and patting him in the back. If his best-friend was trying to reassure him then he didn't need to do it. They knew if the blonde couldn't contact either of them then it meant she was busy with that school of hers.

_She promised to graduate early._ Tamaki pressed his lips into a thin line and fiddled with the straps of his bag pack. If it had been anyone else, he would have doubts about their capabilities but Naruto was fully confident that she could do it. It was hard for him to have doubts when the girl smiled so brightly and looked like she had full belief that she could do it.

One of these days, he wouldn't be surprised if the girl fainted from working herself to the ground._ She always takes things too far._ He liked Naruto worked hard but he did wish the blonde would slow down once in a while.

"I keep hearing about her but who is Naruto?" Nejire asked. Tamaki blinked and twisted his head around to look at his smiling classmate, whose eyes gleamed with an intense, burning curiosity. If he had to guess from the bounce in her steps, the girl was going to question them until she got an answer. "Is she the girl that Tamaki whispers whenever he falls asleep in class? Because he calls out her name a lot!"

Tamaki felt his cheeks burned as Mirio gave him with a knowing look. _I-I didn't call her name a lot or anything._ But that gleam in his friend's eyes told him that nothing he would say would stop his friend from jumping whatever silly conclusion that he had. It was normal for someone to call out a friend's name whenever they had a silly dream.

"You have it bad for Naruto," Mirio sang. Nejire giggled while the indigo-haired boy felt his cheeks burned. He tried to find the words to defend himself but the words were stuck inside of his mouth, not ready for him to spill. Actually he wanted to squirm because talking about his feelings in front of a girl made his heart raced against his chest. "You should have seen him whenever Naruto is near him. He gets even more jittery."

The periwrinkle-haired girl giggled while Tamaki threw a feeble glare at his friend. It was hard for him not to have his palms moistening or to have his heart raced against his chest. Whenever the blond-haired girl smiled, it felt like there was a whole beam of sunlight being directed at him. Her blue eyes would sparkle too and then it made his stomach flip.

Nejire leaned forward and the boy flickered his eyes to the bushes. Could he just hide? How did they go from talking about whether or not Naruto contacted him to about his feelings towards the blonde? They should just change the subject to something more interesting like whether or not they were going to pass their exams this year.

Were they even going to get jobs? Fatgum seemed to like him but the man enjoyed torturing him, always making some comment about him having a girlfriend. The man also seemed to have gotten into his head that he might be in love. _I don't know where he got the idea._ Tamaki fiddled with his hands and cleared his throat.

"I-I don't have it bad for Naruto," Tamaki lowered his head and exhaled as his heart raced against his chest. Bright blue eyes flashed before him alongside the warm smile of the whiskered girl. _You guys have amazing Quirks._ Her cheerful words echoed in his ears and the boy exhaled again. "And we are o-only friends."

"A friend that you have a big crush on," Nejire sang with a huge smile playing on her lips. Mirio vigorously nodded his head in agreement while Tamaki felt his heart pounded against his chest. A crush was not what he felt for Naruto. He liked her as a friend and maybe he might have tried to wiggle the address of where Naruto's school was from Kazue, but Mirio did the same thing.

He didn't understand why he had to be the one to get ganged up on.

"And you work yourself to the ground because of Naruto," Mirio pointed out with a sly smile. Tamaki felt his throat dried up at the reminder while Nejire clapped her hands together at this piece of information. _I didn't work so hard only because of Naruto._ She had been one of his motivations but that didn't mean anything if you asked him.

He paused and looked up at the bright blue sky before flickering his eyes to the three students walking ahead of him. _If Naruto was here, I bet she would be singing about how that boy is developing a crush on that girl._ With the way that green-haired boy flushed a deep shade of red as that brown-haired girl smiled at him, he could practically see Naruto laughing over their interactions.

"If w-we are going to be heroes then we need to work hard," Tamaki finally said.

"Really now?" Mirio raised a single eyebrow at him and bounced in his feet as his blue eyes flickered around them like he was trying to find someone. Everyone was here so Tamaki didn't know who on Earth was Mirio searching for, nor did he care. The boy smiled wider. "You basically made it your mission to help her once we graduate."

Tamaki stopped in his steps and looked down at the ground, trying his hardest not to blush even more at those words. Yeah, he wanted to help her but only because he could already hear how tired the blonde was. _She sounds exhausted whenever we talk._ The blonde would try to be upbeat but he could sense that something changed in Naruto.

He didn't like the change but if they did well enough then maybe he could lessen the burden on her.

"So how long has Tamaki have been in love with her?" Nejire asked. Tamaki felt his throat dried up while Mirio hummed and rubbed his chin like he was actually trying to pinpoint his feelings. _We might have talked over the phone but it has been years since we actually saw her._ It was hard for either of them to declare that he was in love with her.

His friend finally snapped his finger. "It was love at first sight for Tamaki!"

Tamaki spluttered while Nejire giggled. Love at first sight? Now his best friend was trying to make up a love story that wasn't there._ Just because I called her an angel when we first saw her, doesn't mean anything._ The blonde appeared out of nowhere when they saw her in that alley but her hair had been so golden that he thought she came from the sky above.

"Why didn't anyone tell me that our dear Tamaki was growing up?" A voice called out from above them.

The indigo-haired boy froze at the husky voice that he had only heard in the phone and time seemed to slow down as he looked up at the trees. His heart jumped and flipped at the sight above him. Five years. It had been a whole five years since they last saw each other. He constantly fretted over whether or not the girl would eat properly. The blonde declared she would graduate early and she…did it.

Bright blue eyes sparkled with curiosity and Tamaki only had one thought running through his head.

_She still looks pretty._

* * *

**A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything.

**Author Note:** I would like to thank everyone who added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone who reviewed the last chapter.

* * *

_When did little, sweet Tamaki fall in love? And why didn't he tell me about his new found love? I thought we were close enough for him to tell me these kind of things?_

Those were the only thoughts running through her mind as Naruto looked down at her two friends. She tilted her head and furrowed her eyebrows into a single line as both friends gawked at the sight of her. _Have I been out of the loop for so long that I don't even know one of my friends is in love?_ The knowledge that she missed such a big mile stone made her heart dropped down to the floor.

Who was the person that Tamaki fallen in love with? And why didn't he tell her? She was his friend and knew him for a good five years. It was not like she was some kind of stranger that he felt too nervous to talk about. _I thought he was comfortable to talk to me about these kind of things_. Maybe it had been all in her head to think that the distance hadn't changed their dynamics.

The blonde took in a deep breath and jumped down as her two friends continued to gawk at her. Mirio had his eyes fixated on her blond hair, which barely touched her shoulders. _Yeah, I guess he must be surprised that I cut my hair._ She touched the strands of her hair and curled her lips into a smile.

The haircut was necessary because it was a pain to keep cleaning so much hair when there was so much work to be done. _But it isn't like I'm the only one who looks different._ She could see a distinct lack of ponytail from Mirio and the older boy was practically a full foot taller than her. It was different from when she was 12, where he had been only a few inches taller than her.

She shifted her gaze to Tamaki and curled her lips into a wider smile when the older boy flushed a deep shade of red. _Well I guess that adorable habit of his hasn't changed._ It was nice for her to know some things didn't change but why was he still so flustered around her? Until she made her presence known, the boy hadn't been flushed around the girl next to him.

Maybe it was because he hadn't seen her for a long time?

"Naruto, what are you doing here?" Mirio asked. Blue eyes flashed with curiosity and nerves as they flickered between her and Tamaki. Why did he look at her and Tamaki like that? Maybe he didn't want her to know who they were talking about. _I guess they don't want me to look for her and try to figure out her feelings towards my friend._ That was fair. "And how long have you been listening in on our conversation?"

_How long?_ It was obvious how long she heard the conversation between them from her question. If she knew who they were talking about then she wouldn't have asked question but Naruto guessed they wanted her to confirm their suspicions._ If I have a Quirk that allowed me to predict the future then I would have come earlier to know who the lucky person was_. Well she could grill Tamaki later when they were alone.

"Well I only heard the question asking about how long he has been in love," Naruto replied. Mirio relaxed his shoulders and stole a glance at Tamaki. The indigo-haired boy did not look relax at the knowledge that she didn't know about his current love, only avoiding looking her in the eye. _I thought he changed that strange habit of his._ She frowned and decided to continue on. "And I came to visit you and Tamaki of course."

Kazue suggested she waited for them at home but it had been five long years since she saw either of them. Talking to them on the phone wasn't the same as interacting with them face-to-face. Video calls had been forbidden and then there was the fact that on top of her normal hero training, she had to be taught normal subjects.

She exhaled and looked back to Tamaki. _He is looking at me kinda funny._ Not a bad funny but strange funny that made her tilt her head to the side. His eyes looked at her like she was something out of this world, which was rather odd. Odd because he didn't look at her like that when they first met five years ago.

_Maybe I look like an alien to him now?_

"So they actually allowed you to visit?" Mirio questioned. His voice boomed with excitement and the whiskered teen grinned when the older boy swoop her up for a bone-crushing hug. It had been a long time since the boy hugged her like this. The first and last time he offered such a tight hug had been the day before she left for the institution.

She allowed herself to linger in on the hug before pinching the older boy's arms. He squeaked and looked almost hurt by her actions but the whiskered teen only offered him an apologetic smile. _I like getting hugs but I want to breath, damn it! What is it with Togata men and their desire to squeeze me to death?_ At this rate, her back was going to be snapped by two.

"Actually I just graduated," Naruto replied. Mirio and Tamaki's eyes widened and the whiskered teen offered them a wide smile before locking eyes on the gates of Yuuei High that stood a good couple of meters away from her. _I wonder what would have happened if I have gone to Yuuei like them?_ That had always been a question that lingered on her mind.

Could she have gotten into Yuuei High?

"What?" Mirio furrowed his eyebrows before dropping his mouth so low that Naruto worried that a fly might actually buzzed into his mouth. "But how? Last time, I checked you told me that you were struggling with your normal subjects!"

Naruto grinned and clasped her hands behind her head. Yeah, there had been certain subjects that she struggled to understand like Math and History had been a pain in the neck but she used her shadow clones to make sure she understood everything. It had to be done if you asked her because she made a promise to them.

"Well I worked my ass off and got amazing grades in _all_ of my subjects," she finally sang. The whiskered teen bounced in her steps and locked eyes with the gawking boy in front of her. "So they decided because I'm so awesome that it is time for me to spread my wings and save the wonderful people of Japan."

Mirio whistled while Tamaki regarded her with amused eyes and twitching lips. _Damn it and here I thought I could get a full blown confident smile from him._ The nervous smiles were ones that she was used to but Naruto wanted to see what it would look like if her friend gave her a full-blown smile that didn't wobble.

"C-Congratulation, Naruto," Tamaki finally stuttered. His eyes didn't meet her and those pale cheeks flushed an even darker shade of red, which only made her tilt her head. _We need to fix that stutter._ It was a cute habit but there would be people in the media who wouldn't look at it the same way either she or Mirio saw it. "Y-You said that you were going to do it."

The whiskered teen smiled even wider and without a second thought, she tiptoed and ruffled her friend's hair before poking him slightly in the rib. The indigo-haired teen squeaked as if she electric-shock him by her finger, which would be cool if she thought about it. He raised a single eyebrow and looked down at her. "W-Why did you do that?"

"Cuz I'm going to start punishing you whenever you stutter in public," Naruto declared. She flashed him a smile and tilted her head when the boy looked away from her. She could practically hear the steam erupting from his ears and the blonde blinked. "Are you okay, Tamaki? You look like you are getting sick."

Tamaki vigorously nodded his head and mumbled a couple of words with a voice that was so low that not even straining her own ear allowed her to hear what he had to say. _What is he trying to tell me?_ She couldn't even figure out what was on his mind or what he wanted her to do when he couldn't look her in the eye. She flickered her eyes to Mirio and frowned.

Her other friend looked almost gleeful and amused at what was happening to Tamaki. _Is he seriously happy that our dearest friend look like he is going to pass out soon?_ The blonde wrinkled her nose and forced herself to lean across Tamaki and lowered her head till her blue eyes met indigo eyes. The older boy squeaked.

"I-I'm fine, Naruto," Tamaki reassured her. Naruto nodded and the boy gulped as if there was something terrifying coming up their way, which was impossible when she thought about it. No Villain was reckless enough to attack right in front of one of the best schools in Japan. "B-But you are really close."

The blonde blinked and tilted her head as her eyes fixated on their linked arms. Were they really that close? She didn't mind being this close to him. It was comfortable for her to do this but did he dislike her holding him like this? Naruto frowned. _I mean I can let go but how will he ever have a girlfriend if he can't get used to simple things like this?_ She probably should help him get used to simple things like this.

"I am letting go this time but you need to get used to a girl holding you like this," Naruto declared as she removed her arm from him. Tamaki kept quiet and looked almost like a cute, little puppy who got hurt. _Didn't he imply he didn't like me doing this? Why is he reacting differently?_ She didn't understand boys. "I mean what happens once you get a girlfriend? She probably would want to hold your arm once in a while and give you a kiss every once in a while."

Her friend flushed an even brighter shade of red and looked like he was going to pass out from her words alone. _We will have to get him to adapt a little bit in case the girl of his dreams can't understand his shyness on public display of affections._ Hugging him and giving him compliments might help him get the confidence to confess to the girl of his dream.

"Would you like it if a guy do that for you, Naruto?" Mirio asked, flickering his eyes to Tamaki.

The blonde blinked and tilted her head. _What does my non-existent boyfriend have to do with anything?_ She guessed the older boy was trying to make a point to Tamaki but she didn't understand what it had to do with her. Boyfriends weren't on her mind and with that one disastrous blind date that Keigo put her on, she didn't want to go through the pain again.

"Well if he is shy about showing his affections in public then I don't mind," Naruto shrugged her shoulders and offered them a smile before flickering her eyes at the two boys. "I mean you don't have to display your affection to the whole world to make your relationship sincere, but not everyone thinks like me. I'm just saying in case that the girl Tamaki likes, might push him to show affection in public."

Mirio frowned and shook his head while his eyes fixated on the silent Tamaki before flickering his eyes at her. _What? You don't think I should have said that? But what could I say that the girl didn't deserve him?_ That had been a tempting thought but it would be wrong of her. Tamaki and him had been rays of sunlight during her time in the program.

She wanted the both of them to be happy like how they made her happy.

"Aren't you curious to know who Tamaki likes?" Naruto blinked and twisted her head around to stare at the periwrinkle-haired girl, who had been strangely silent during their whole interaction. A wide smile played on the girl's lips and she bounced in her steps. "Aren't you a little bit curious?"

The question hung in the air as several eyes fixated on her and the blonde bobbed her head. It would be a lie if she didn't admit that there was tickle of curiosity running down her spine to know who Tamaki fallen in love with? Was she a underclassman? Or was it a crush on a teacher? There were just so many possibilities.

"Yeah Tamaki, do you wanna tell Naruto on who is the lucky girl that captured your heart?" Mirio asked, elbowing the boy slightly. Tamaki stole a glance at her before looking away from her. _I think he is getting really flustered about us asking about his crush._ That was what him looking away from her and those flushed cheeks told her.

She offered him a smile before looking back at Mirio and his friend. "Y'know you should stop teasing Tamaki. The poor guy is probably going to faint if you keep pestering him about the love of his life."

The boy opened his mouth to protest, only to close his mouth when that periwrinkle-haired girl whispered something in his ear. The two of them kept glancing at each other before looking at her like she was the most naïve person in the world._ Did I say something silly? Tamaki really looks like he might faint soon._ The redness in his cheeks and the wobble in his knees indicated her this.

"You are going to be okay, Tamaki?" Naruto whispered to the boy as her eyes fixated on the two teens before them. The girl stole a glance at her before dragging a chuckling Mirio away from them. _I wonder what those two have to talk about that neither of us can't hear them?_ Well it wasn't her business. "You look like you are going to faint."

Tamaki blinked and looked down at her for the longest time. _He really does have one of those elf ears._ She always tried to picture him and Mirio in her mind but there were certain features of her friends that were a blur in her mind. She forgot how blue Mirio eyes had been and how the boy right beside her had the cutest ears.

The older boy looked down at his feet and shuffled in his feet. "I-I'm fine, Naruto. I j-just realized that you look really different now."

"A bad different?" Naruto asked, tilting her head and keeping her tone steady.

He shook his head and looked at the whisker marks on her cheeks before moving his eyes to her hair. Time seemed to have slow down as his eyes fixated on the blond hair that barely touched her shoulders. There was a little bit of confidence in his gaze like he knew the reason for the question before nodding his head.

"It is a good different," Tamaki replied as his hand rubbed against his neck. "You look prettier with your hair like this so you shouldn't worry about looking weird with shorter hair. Mirio will tell you the same thing once he realized that you went through with cutting your hair."

Naruto blinked and blinked before flushing a deep shade of red at the compliment. _D-Did he just say that without stuttering?_ That was something new and how did he know that she was nervous about the whole haircut thing? It wasn't like she vocalized it to him or anything so how did he figure it out? A smile played on her lips as Kazue's words echoed in her ear.

"_Tamaki has always been perceptive when it comes to you."_

She linked their arms again and offered him a small smile. "Thank you, Tamaki."

The boy stared at her for the longest time as if she broke his mind with those three words. _I always told him thank you in the phone, so why is he acting like this is the first time I thank him?_ No, the soft look in his eyes told her that this was not the case. Those flushed cheeks told her that he was probably still not used to someone giving him compliments or saying the words thank you to him.

"Hey Naruto since you graduated, I was wondering if you wanna celebrate your graduation with having ramen with us!" Mirio called out from behind them. Naruto tore her eyes away from Tamaki and blinked at the sudden offer as the periwrinkle-haired girl flashed an encouraging smile at them.

It was an innocent offer but why the hell did she have a feeling that it might be a trap?

"I was thinking about celebrating it with you guys at your—"

"Tamaki is going to pay!" The girl called out from beside Mirio. "He lost a bet so he has to pay for Mirio's food."

The indigo-haired boy swirled his head at the blond-haired boy and then blinked at those words. _That tells me that they are lying to me._ If this was true then the boy wouldn't look so wide-eyed at that piece of information but why were they lying? She couldn't think of a single reason for those two to lie to them.

She flickered her eyes to Tamaki and the boy stole a glance at her. Those indigo-eyes flashed with uncertainty as if he didn't know what to tell her and the blonde hummed. _It will be free ramen but they spurn it on Tamaki without any warning._ It would be mean of her to take advantage of her friend's kindness.

"You don't have to pay for my meal," Naruto informed him with a wide smile. She kept her tone low as her eyes fixated on the boy and their female friend. "I know Mirio is up to something but I have no clue what those two are planning. If you want, I will pay for the meal and you can save all that money you worked hard to earn. I mean we both know that Mirio and me can—"

"—I w-want to pay for the meal," Tamaki replied quickly. Naruto blinked and raised a single eyebrow as her friend straightened his shoulders and locked eyes with her. "We missed five of your birthdays because of that program and you graduated early. I-I haven't prepared a gift so I wanna make it up to you by doing this much for you. I k-know it isn't much but we can do s-something better later."

The whiskered teen stared at him for the longest time before tackling him. He crashed down to the ground and squeaked as Naruto hugged him tightly. It might have been inappropriate for her to hug him like this but the fact that he wanted to do this meant a lot to her. She pushed her hair up and looked down at the teen, who stared up at her with red cheeks.

"The fact you want to pay for my ramen is enough for me, Tamaki!"

This was probably one of the best days of her life.

* * *

"_So what are your plans now, Naruto? Which hero are you planning to work under?"_

Naruto slurped on what must have been her fourth bowl of ramen when Mirio decided to spurn the question on her. Swallowing down the noodles, the whiskered teen put down her chopsticks on the three teens before her. Tamaki fixated his curious eyes on her while Nejire bobbed her head with a excited bounce.

"I'm going to open up my own agency," the blonde replied. She picked up the tissue and wiped her mouth as the three of them gawked at her declaration. Well actually only Mirio and the girl Nejire gawked. Tamaki didn't look all that surprised of the fact that she was prepared to open up her own office, not when she informed him and Mirio about her very first dream.

_I was really tempted to put Hokage as my Hero Name._ But the Public Safety Commission didn't let her, telling her that they would pick a codename for her. The name that they chose for her wasn't bad. It was still pretty awesome when she thought about it but the idea of linking her original dream with her new occupation had been an amazing idea.

She sighed and took a sip of her soda as her two friends and their classmate continued to stare at her. Naruto could fully understand why they might be surprised by her actions. Usually when students graduated from hero schools, they would work a few years under an experienced hero. The only exception to this rule were her senpai and her.

"_They take in very talented children, Uzumaki and they saw the talent and potential in our Quirks."_

That was what her senior told her when she asked why there weren't many children in this special program. _I think they also take advantage of children who want a better life for themselves._ She knew from the conversation with the few other children in the program that they either grew up in poverty or had parents who weren't fit to take care of them.

"You are going to do the same thing as Hawks then?" Nejire finally asked. Her eyes beamed with burning curiosity as the girl pushed her ramen to the side before leaning forward till her nose almost touched her. The blonde blinked and leaned closer to Tamaki. "That is amazing! Did you find a good location? What made you decide to take a risk and make your own agency from the very beginning? Do you have any sidekicks?"

The questions came out like bullets that she couldn't dodge. Naruto knew from their walk to the ramen stand that the girl was just as hyperactive as her but she was speaking so fast that she could practically see birds flying around her. Which question did she choose to answer? What was even the first question? Oh, Hawks.

Her beloved senpai who liked to remind her of just how dark the hero society could be.

"I'm going to be more amazing than Hawks," Naruto informed them. She offered them a smile as her eyes fixated on the television screen in front of them. The news of her senior latest rescue was on display and the blonde snorted. _He is disgusted by the Public Safety Commission and he doesn't try to change it._ She couldn't understand why hate a system and not try to change it. "I'm going to be an even better hero then All Might."

Mirio spat out his drink while Nejire gawked at her declaration. The blonde only took a sip of her drink and locked eyes on the smiling customers. It was not because the Public Safety Commission informed her of their wishes but because she wanted a different hero on the list. All Might was amazing but she didn't like his style.

"That is a very challenging goal," Tamaki pointed out. His tone wavered with nerves but the whiskered teen didn't miss the concern in his tone. She knew the boy long enough to know that he did have faith in her goals because if the words came out from another person, then she would challenge them to a fight.

But the boy always had faith in her even when she didn't have faith in herself.

"I will do what Endeavour fails to do," Naruto replied with a grin. The three teens exchanged glances before looking at her with frowns on their faces. _I won't get irritated if I can't climb over the line that All Might set._ She picked up her chopsticks and raised a single eyebrow when a white-haired boy with grey eyes looked at her with irritated eyes.

_He kinda look like Endeavour._ The blonde shrugged and looked down at her bowl of ramen. Not many people were fans of the Number Two Hero and the whiskered teen understood why. The man was crass and didn't try to be friendly like All Might but there was something about him that she admired and it was how he tried to overtake the man.

She understood how frustrating it could be because that was her feeling towards Sasuke during the Academy.

"You know if Sir Nighteye hears what you have to say, he will take it as an insult that you think you can overtake All Might," Mirio warned her. The blonde slurped on her noodles and shrugged. Why should she care about what a former sidekick believe? She was going to achieve her goal no matter what. "He has a high criteria on who can be better than All Might."

Naruto put down her chopsticks and locked eyes on him. "All Might is an amazing hero but there will never be another All Might. Every hero is different from each other and have different beliefs. The Number One Hero shouldn't be someone that everyone thinks is perfect. I don't want the Number One Hero to only rely on themselves. The Number One Hero shouldn't be seen as some God."

_People need to understand that we are human too._ She hummed and flickered her eyes to Tamaki. The boy was very quiet throughout the exchange like he was deeply considering her words. Her words were rather strange when she thought about it. People always looked up to All Might like he was some kind of God and here she was proclaiming that he wasn't one.

Whenever she watched him on television, all she could think of was how exhausting it would be to shoulder such a huge burden on himself. _I probably would be the same as him if it wasn't for the Commission._ They tried to make her do the same things as him and tried to drill it into her head but then she would always remember the Third Hokage.

"_I can't do everything by myself Naruto, I need the council to advise me because I'm also human."_

It never made much sense to her until the middle of the program.

"It will be a long road ahead of you," Tamaki informed her quietly as Mirio and Nejire chatted about their plans for the week. His eyes fixated on her like he was asking her if she was ready for that road. _You don't have to push yourself._ That was what his eyes told her and the whiskered teen smiled at the unspoken words coming out from him. "You are going to work yourself to the ground."

Naruto hummed. "I'm not going to be like All Might, Endeavour or even like Hawks! I'm going to show everyone that there is a different type of hero…a hero that doesn't only care about capturing Villains or rescuing people. Ratings are good because they are helpful for work but having my integrity as a hero is even more important to me."

She didn't want to prove those villagers right about her being a bad seed.

_I wanna prove that even a child like me can be a hero and that heroes are human too._

She never wanted to lose sight of what made her Uzumaki Naruto.

* * *

"_So now that we are alone, will you tell me about __**her**__?"_

Naruto hummed and clasped her hands behind her back as Tamaki and her walked back to Mirio's home. They both knew Mirio and Nejire made up excuses for not being able to come back with them. The blond-haired boy suddenly claimed out of nowhere that he had some papers to give to Sir Nighteye while Nejire informed that she suddenly had plans with one of her friends.

How did she figure out it was a lie? It was the simple fact that those two had very wide smiles and dashed away before she could even call them out of their lie. _I guess I'm glad that they left us alone because it makes grilling Tamaki for answers easier._ With how shy Tamaki was, the blonde knew that he wouldn't be comfortable with spilling the truth in public.

Tamaki blinked and tilted his head. "Her?"

"Your crush!" Naruto reminded him. She shoved her hands into her pockets and looked at him with a tilted head as they walked passed an old couple. The couple offered them a knowing look before muttering something between them. _Old people are weird._ The blonde shook her head and looked to the frozen boy. "C'mon I wanna know about the lucky girl who captured your heart!"

Her friend flushed a deep shade of red and the whiskered teen leaned closer to him. His eyes looked everywhere but at her and Naruto could practically see the sweat forming around his body. Was she pushing him too hard? Nope. She just had to know about the lucky girl and what type of person she was.

She heard about the various crushes and the failed attempts Mirio had on getting dates but not once did she ever hear anything from Tamaki.

"Naruto—"

He wasn't going to avoid the topic even if he looked like an adorable, flustered little bunny with those red cheeks.

"C'mon I had to hear that you have a crush from overhearing Mirio and Hadou teasing you!" The blonde pouted and puffed her cheeks as her friend continued to stare at her with wide eyes. "I told you and Mirio about that disastrous blind date that my senpai tried to set me on. The least you can do is give me some piece of information!"

The more and more she talked, the more Tamaki grew a deep shade of red at her words. Seconds passed before the older boy looked away from her with cheeks that now resembled a red rose. Naruto felt her eyebrows twitched when the boy laughed slightly. _It isn't funny!_ It was childish for her to whine but they had been good friends for a whole five years.

"Amajiki Tamaki, it isn't funny!"

"I-I know," Tamaki replied. He coughed and covered his mouth before twisting his head to look down at her with a nervous smile playing on his lips. _I should calm down._ She exhaled and allowed her eyes to soften as her friend continued to stare at her. "But you sound like an angry baby fox and that is kinda cute."

The blonde stood frozen and gawked at the smiling boy. _C-Cute? _Her mind shut down like a computer at the compliment coming out of his mouth. Cute had never been something associated with her, not when she was angry or annoyed at the very least. Terrifying was the word used by the people who knew about her.

Definitely not cute.

She cleared her throat and forced herself to look away from Tamaki as her cheeks began to heat up once her brain finally rebooted its system. What the hell was going on with her? Why was she even flustered by this? They were friends. Friends could compliment each other. Hinata-chan used to compliment her a lot too but there was a genuine sincerity in his words.

Yeah, the sincerity flustered her.

"Well of course I'm angry! How would you feel if I hid the fact I've a crush on someone from you?" Naruto grumbled. She waited till she was certain that her cheeks weren't burning anymore before looking back at the older boy. "Can't you just tell me something about her? I promise not to drill her or interrogate her about her feelings towards you? Believe it!"

She winced as the verbal tic came out of her mouth. _I thought I got rid of that stupid tic._ There had been a whole seminar dedicated on her getting rid of her tic. But then again how the hell could she control herself with the knowledge that one of her dearest friends was in love and he didn't tell her? Mirio didn't even give her a hint when they talked in the phone a week ago.

"Do you have a crush on someone?" Tamaki asked. Seriousness dripped into his tone as the boy locked eyes with her. _Is there someone in your life that I don't know about and that is why you want to know so badly?_ That was the question coming out of his eyes and the whiskered teen puffed her cheeks again before folding her arms against her chest.

There had been one disastrous blind date, where the guy constantly talked about himself and never once tried to get to know her. The bastard disrespected her when she told him about her dream and didn't even offer to pay half of the meal. The guy didn't even like the meal and didn't even bother to pretend to like the meal.

Other than that bad date, Naruto never agreed to go on a blind date again and never found someone who even interested her in some way or form.

"If I told you about my crappy first date then I will definitely tell you and Mirio if I develop feelings for anyone," she reminded him. Tamaki relaxed and the blonde looked up at the evening sky. Tamaki and Mirio were probably one of the closest people to her and just like how Hinata confided to her about her crush, she would do the same for both boys.

That was what friends do and the whiskered teen could never understand how some friends would just keep their crushes a secret from each other. _I mean I guess I get it if you share the same crush._ When she heard Ino kept her crush on Sasuke a secret from Sakura, she could understand why the both of them were irritated with each other.

Sakura spilled her crush to her friend because that was what friends did and Ino kept it a secret so that she didn't ruin their friendship. _I'm lucky Hinata-chan and me never share a crush._ Then again crushes were messy things when she thought about it and they weren't really worth the trouble of losing a friend.

"I don't have a crush on anyone," Tamaki informed her. Naruto blinked and fixated her eyes on the sincere eyes of her friend. There were no wavering in his eyes and not once did he try to look away from her. The fact that his tone was confident and clear without a single indication of a stutter told her everything.

_If he doesn't have a crush then why are Mirio and Hadou certain that he has feelings for someone?_ She knitted her eyebrows together and looked up at the orange sky. Maybe there was something she was missing in their conversation. That could be a possibility and she could always ask Mirio about why he would claim Tamaki had a crush when the boy truly believed he didn't have one.

Well she could ask him after she finished her own mission.

"Well when you do develop a crush on someone then tell me," Naruto offered him a smile and grinned at the boy as she linked their hands together like she used to do when they were in middle school. "I will definitely help you try to confess your feelings to your crush whenever I have free time! I will even coach you on how to do it!"

Tamaki looked at her before flickering his eyes at their linked arms. She didn't know if her friend disliked of her habit of linking their arms like this but it felt like it was their thing. _But maybe he worries that people might take us the wrong way?_ Some people used to look at her funny when she used to link her arm together with Hinata and Shikamaru but it made her feel warmer and connected to people.

"How are you going to help me when you never had a crush before?" Tamaki finally asked. He didn't remove his arm away from her and the whiskered teen grinned before tightening the link between them. "I m-mean between the three of us, Mirio has the most experience with confessing to someone and going on dates."

"He is also the guy that never gets a second date because his date doesn't like his style outside of school," Naruto reminded him. Tamaki wrinkled his nose and clicked his tongue at the reminder while the whiskered teen scowled. _Some girls can be really judgmental on a way a guy dress._ Mirio laughed it off whenever they talked about it in the phone but she really disliked it.

The older boy was a sweet guy but a terrible fashion sense was no reason not to go on a second date.

"Mirio always laugh it off and doesn't even try to take Nejire's offer of helping him pick a good outfit," Tamaki commented. Naruto blinked at this piece of information and decided to file it away for another day. The two teens looked so close during the time that they ate ramen so it was a wonder why her fellow blonde wouldn't take Nejire's offer.

The blonde shook her head and stared at Tamaki. _How are you going to help me when you never had a crush before?_ Nothing about the question seemed patronizing and there was a genuine curiosity in there. Was it difficult to confess to someone? The girls in the Academy made it seem easy with how they declared their love to Sasuke so easily.

"It can't be that hard to confess to someone," Naruto mused. Tamaki jerked his head at her and the whiskered teen offered him a warm smile as her eyes locked onto his wide eyes. " I mean you just have to go up to a person and just tell them that you have strong feelings for them. If they reject you then it isn't the end of the world and if they accept you then you can kiss them!"

Tamaki gawked and then squeaked. "It isn't that easy, Naruto! Why do you make it seem like it is as easy as counting 1,2,3."

"Well it is easy when you think of it in that way!" Naruto chirped. "If you don't believe me then the moment I have a crush on someone, I will confess to them and tell you all about it! If I do that then would you believe me if I tell you that it is that easy?"

Tamaki nodded and Naruto decided that a bet was made between them.

_Unfortunately for her, she ended up in a position where she had to hold off on the bet. If she had anyone and anything to blame then she had to blame her impulsive desire to prove to her childhood classmates that she was a desirable person as well as the damn Sports Festival for being so well-known._

* * *

**A/N:** So Naruto believes Tamaki when he says that he doesn't have a crush. Mirio and Nejire are playing match makers for the two teens and there is still Naruto's first job. Now here are a few questions:

**Question 1**: What do you think of the whole interaction between Tamaki and Naruto?

**Question 2**: What do you think should be Naruto's hero name?

Please do tell me of your thoughts on this chapter.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

**Author Note:** I also want to thank Pakkunn for giving me what could be the best suggestion on what would be Naruto's hero name. I would also like to thank everyone who added this story to their favourite and follows as well as everyone who reviewed the last chapter.

* * *

"_So how was your walk with Tamaki?"_

Naruto tore her eyes away from her opened suitcase and blinked at the sight of Mirio leaning against the side of the door with a large smile playing on his lips. It had been three hours since her friend left her alone with Tamaki. _I'm pretty sure he didn't have any paperwork to give to his boss._ She should call him out for it but she didn't dislike the action.

It had been so nice to talk to Tamaki while he walked her back to Kazue's house. Things had been comfortable between them except for the flustered look that he had given her for asking about his crush. _I think he will react even more adorable when he finally has a crush._ A smile decorated her lips and the blonde looked at her grinning friend.

"It was nice," Naruto admitted. Mirio smiled wider and closed the door behind them before taking a seat right beside her. The whiskered teen picked up the photo of the three of them in Middle School from her suitcase and locked eyes with the red-cheek Tamaki in the photograph. "He really hasn't changed one bit since Middle School. He is still so easy for me to fluster."

Mirio nodded and gave her a knowing smile, which earned a furrowed eyebrows from the blonde. _Why does he look at me like that? There is nothing weird about my words._ She shifted her eyes from the ponytail of Mirio in the photograph before looking at the blushing Tamaki, who had his eyes locked onto her arms. _He kept stuttering that we were so close._ It was a cute how Tamaki got so nervous from a single touch.

She thought he would have gotten rid of that habit by now but it seemed like she was wrong.

"It feels like old times, doesn't it?" Mirio asked. He looked down at the photo in her hand before offering her a large smile. _Old times?_ That was almost…true. Something did feel different between the three of them. It was not the closeness but the blond-haired boy skipped out of them for no reason. _I don't know why he would suddenly leave us alone._ She frowned.

"Why did you suddenly decide to leave me alone with Tamaki?" Naruto asked. The older boy blinked while the whiskered girl puffed her cheeks and folded her arms against her chest. "I know you were making things up so why did you suddenly decide to leave me alone with Tamaki?"

Mirio frowned. "You didn't like being left alone with Tamaki?"

"You know I love hanging out with Tamaki," she reminded him. The blond-haired boy relaxed his shoulders while the blond-haired girl looked down at her hands before looking back at him. "But I don't understand what possessed you to make up excuses! Why did you decide to bail on us?"

Mirio flickered his eyes around the room, not once did his blue eyes meet her own. The blonde folded her arms against her chest and eyed her friend. The fact he took his time to explain things made the frown on her face deepened. What on Earth was so difficult for him to explain? Was there more to the story? There had to be more to the story.

"I wanted to hang out with my girlfriend," Mirio declared, offering her a grin. _Do you expect me to believe you got a girlfriend that Tamaki doesn't know about?_ She wanted to ask the question but decided to bite her tongue. She exhaled as her friend scratched his neck. "You know it is kind of a new thing so I haven't told Tamaki about her. You know how he can be."

The whiskered teen hummed and accepted the answer. _He will probably ask him whether it was a good idea for him to be spending time with the girl and he will be frantic on how to make things work between them._ The thought reassured her and Naruto relaxed her shoulder. It was so silly of her to think that Mirio had been up to something.

Now that she knew he wasn't hiding something from her, the blonde decided to confront him about the next order of business.

"Y'know I asked Tamaki about his crush and he made it clear to me that he didn't have a crush on anyone," Naruto informed Mirio. She tilted her head to the side and looked down at the photo of the three of them before frowning at her friend. "You know it is mean to tease him about something that doesn't exist."

The blond-haired boy tilted his head and inspected her carefully. Naruto raised a single eyebrow. Why was he thinking so long and hard about it? It was mean to tease someone about a person who didn't exist. Tamaki did not deserve to be teased in that way. Even though it was nice to see those pale cheeks turned to a very pretty shade of red, he didn't deserve to get flustered.

"Why do you think his crush doesn't exist?" Mirio asked. He leaned forward and the blond-haired girl leaned back with a scowl playing on her lips. The smile on Mirio's face widened. "Are you jealous that Tamaki likes someone?"

Naruto spluttered and jerked her head at her grinning friend._ Why would I be jealous?_ She had been pleased to know that there wasn't another girl because it meant there weren't any secrets between them. It would make her happy if her friend found someone that he liked but she had to make sure that the girl wasn't some thoughtless girl, who was chasing after a dream.

She had been so worried and fretting over how Tamaki could go on to confess to someone. _I just can't picture him having the courage to confess to the girl without fainting before he says his feelings to her._ That did not mean anything. Besides what was there to be jealous? As long as her friend didn't decide to spend _all_ his time with his new crush then things between them was good.

"He is our friend," Naruto reminded him. She kept her tone firm and curled her lips into a frown before fixating her eyes on the photo of a blushing Tamaki before flickering her eyes at the knowing eyes of Mirio. "I don't like seeing him getting flustered over something that he say isn't true. I don't like seeing _either_ of you getting upset."

Mirio raised a single eyebrow at her and Naruto cursed herself for stressing the word_ either._ There had been no need for her to stress the word to him but her friend kept giving her that knowing look like he thought she didn't just see Tamaki as a precious friend. The three of them were friends. Not once did she ever treat Tamaki different from the boy in front of her.

"Tamaki is in denial over his feelings," Mirio informed her. Naruto blinked and then felt her heart drop at hearing those words coming out of his mouth. _Why would he deny himself of something so nice?_ Love was beautiful. Well genuine love was beautiful in her opinion. The smile of a person in love was a thousand times more prettier than a person who wasn't in love.

The whiskered teen nodded and inspected the photo as her blond-haired friend continued to regard her. _Maybe I think like that because Hinata-chan looked even prettier when she started to like Kiba._ That could be the reason for that line of thinking. If Hinata looked prettier when she was in love then what would Tamaki look like? Probably even more cute than now.

Although she couldn't picture how much more adorable he would get once he accepted his feelings but that brought out another question:

"Why would Tamaki even be in denial about his feelings?" Naruto asked. She put down the photo and looked at her friend with curious eyes and a tilted head. "He isn't the type of a guy who can't tell when he has a crush or not. I mean he is pretty sensitive when it comes to people's feelings so why would he be in denial about his own feelings?"

Fear could be the answer but he would have confided in her if he developed feelings for someone. The whiskered teen bobbed her head and turned her head to look at the posters decorating her room. _I'm surprised Kazue-ojisan kept those posters up._ Endeavour posters decorated her walls and the whiskered teen shook her head. Not the time for her to think about that.

There was another topic for her to focus on.

"Well she is his first crush and not everyone can differentiate between the difference between a romantic love and as platonic love," Mirio answered. There was a wide smile playing on his lips and a sparkle in his eyes that told her that he was up to something again. If that something was going to help the flustered boy then she was willing to help the plan. "Unlike your senpai, I haven't been able to convince Tamaki to go on a blind date."

Naruto wrinkled her nose. "Don't remind me of that disaster, Mirio!"

"I can't believe that one bad date put you off from the idea of dating," Mirio observed. The whiskered teen shrugged and looked up to the ceiling. _It isn't that it put me off but it didn't feel right._ It wasn't just the guy's manners that put her off or the way he didn't try to get to know her but something nagged at her that it was not right.

She exhaled and stretched her hand out as Mirio continued to regard her. _Maybe I should go on another date and see why it didn't feel right._ That would be a good idea but how could she go on a date when her precious friend couldn't differentiate between the two loves. Wait, maybe she should just explain the difference to Tamaki and help him hook up with his crush before going on a random blind date again.

"I will explain to him the difference between the love of friends and a romantic love," Naruto answered. Her fellow blonde blinked and the whiskered teen flashed the older boy a bright smile. "It isn't that hard to differentiate between them, right? I mean it can't be that hard to explain the difference between those two loves?"

Mirio stared at her for the longest time, looking almost torn apart between smacking his head or laughing his head off. _Why do I have a feeling that he doesn't think I'm capable of doing it?_ Her one date meant that she had some knowledge between the difference between romantic love and platonic love. It was not like she was blind about the difference between them.

Finally, her friend suggested. "Why don't I do that part, Naruto?"

"You've been doing a crappy job on helping him," Naruto deadpanned. She folded her arms against her chest and curled her lips into a scowl. There would be no need for her to get involved if the older boy just explained the difference between the two loves. _He is the one who has been on the most dates too._ That should be telling something.

Mirio slumped his shoulder and widened his eyes at her, looking almost like a hurt puppy. _Am I really going to let him do the explaining?_ If her friend continued to look like a hurt little boy then she had no choice but to let the boy do it. Besides, Tamaki seemed to be willing to accept what the blond-haired boy had to say because of his experience.

"You will do a better job on teaching him on how to go on a date with girl," Mirio informed her. Naruto blinked and raised a single eyebrow. _Are you saying that because I'm a girl._ The question must have shown on her face because her friend quickly continued on. "Tamaki will definitely feel more comfortable going on dates with you then Nejire. Nejire doesn't fully understand why Tamaki gets nervous around people."

Well if her friend put it in that way then of course she would be more than happy to do the whole teaching Tamaki on how to date a girl.

"Alright but I'm starting to train him tomorrow," Naruto declared with a bright smile. "I will pick him up after I'm done with work tomorrow."

Mirio relaxed his shoulders.

"Then if that is the case then you should wait for him at Fat Gum Agency."

* * *

(_Next day)_

"_May I ask what is the purpose of bringing in the parents?"_

Naruto rubbed the back of her neck and flickered her eyes at the parents, who sat in the interrogating room before flickering her eyes to the officer standing right beside her. If the whiskered teen had to guess, the man was probably only a few years older than her and probably new to the work because his dark eyes held a light that did not exist to the officer across the room, who was talking in his cellphone.

She hoped he was doing the request that she made the moment she came into the police station. _I really thought that the Commission would have told them about my request._ Naruto grimaced. It would be easy if the Public Safety Commission did it for her but it would bring too many questions if they started doing everything that she wanted.

"I just want to double check everything," Naruto finally replied. She leaned her body forward and picked up her banana-flavoured milk as her blue eyes inspected the parents. The mother kept fiddling with her hands and looked ready to storm out. It was probably normal. The father's reaction was more interesting. He couldn't meet his wife in the eye and kept sweating buckets. "I think there are other factors that we need to consider."

The officer frowned, tilted his head and gawked at her. _We?_ That was the question that screamed in his eyes and the whiskered teen curled her lips into a smile as her hands settled on her hips. Even if she did solve the case, it would be wrong for her to claim she did it by herself. It was a group effort to locate the baby.

The only reason she was on the case was the possibility of whether or not villains were involved with this case.

"Do you really believe that the parents made the whole thing up? That they are involved with their own child being taken away?" The officer demanded. Anger leaked out of his tone as his dark eyes glared at her and Naruto scowled. "We have been looking for their daughter for the past few months and every day the parents come in here, thinking we got some clue of where their daughter had been taken."

Naruto dug her fingers against the palm of her hand and clenched her jaws. _I'm not saying that they could be lying about their daughter being taken away from them._ The way the mother kept sobbing and rocking herself back definitely suggested that it was the truth but the father troubled her. The red circles around his hand and the haggard look in his face indicated a drinking problem.

It could be something new but she wanted to confirm that he did not have _that_ kind of problem.

"There are other things we need to consider," she explained. The delicious taste of her milk made her throat sing in happiness as her eyes fixated on the police officer standing right in front of her. "I wanna know if the baby already showed signs of her Quirk. If that is the case then we will need to look into a Quirk ring and see if there had been any similar patterns in disappearance."

The officer clicked his tongue and narrowed his eyes at her. _She probably hopes that it will be that big so she can have an even more amazing debut._ That was what his eyes told her and the knowledge made her grind her teeth together. What the hell was wrong with the asshole? Was it wrong for her to check every damn parameter? Because there was a child's life at stake and she wanted to cross out every possibility.

"Little girl thinks just because she graduated early that she knows better than us," the police officer grumbled. Naruto clenched her jaws together and felt her nostrils flare at those words._ I don't wanna deal with the paperwork for smacking a rude man._ As long as she chanted those words then everything was fine. "All Might should have been given such a high-profile case, not some newbie who doesn't trust our paperwork!"

She could feel the vein on her forehead throbbing at those words. _If I have been born a man or if I was older then would he still be this rude to me?_ It felt like Konoha all over again. At the age of eight, she declared she was going to become Hokage and almost everyone treated her with the same disrespectful manner as this man.

"I might be 17 and yeah I fucking just graduated but I ain't taking any chances with this baby!" She snarled. The man jumped up and looked almost taken back by the fact that she could hear his _loud_ voice. The other police officer held his hand over his phone and narrowed his eyes at the young officer before offering her an apologetic smile. Naruto grunted and glared at the young officer. "I ain't going to do a half-ass job!"

The words pierced through the air and the police officer wilted as her blue eyes glowed with fury. _If I only trusted their damn paperwork then they would have found the baby by now._ What if the case blew up to being a Quirk Ring? It meant there would be more children who had been snatched away from their loving parents.

They would be facing a lot of trauma and that knowledge made her sick to her core.

"Sacral, I apologize for my officer's behavior towards you but it is rare that the Public Safety Commission would put a new hero in such a high-level case," Tanuma quickly explained. He whacked the police officer on the back of his head before offering her another smile. "We all know what is at stake here."

Naruto regarded the male carefully before relaxing her shoulders. Nothing about the man's tone implied he found some fault with her behaviour and that he could understand why she felt like throttling his officer. _I know it is rare because the last time they did this, they gave a high-profile case to Keigo-senpai._ She understood their frustration but the thirst inside of her wasn't to make a big splash in the newspaper.

She just wanted to be certain of everything before looking into things.

"Did the Public Safety Commission and the Commission General agree to my request?" She twisted her fingers behind her back and closed her eyes. This would make things easier for everyone and help her figure out the clues that everyone was missing when it came to locating the child. "Will they grant the authorization of questioning them again under a lie detector test?"

Tanuma nodded. "They granted it but I called in Detective Naomosa to do the questioning instead. He is much more reliable when it comes to figuring out whether or not they are lying because of his Quirk. Do you still wish to proceed with the test?"

The blonde paused and looked to the window. _If his Quirk can detect lies then there would be no need for me to do a lie detector test._ The test was probably 80-90% accurate which was the last thing she wanted. There was also the fact a person could be considered telling the truth because they knew how to beat a lie-detector test. She poked her tongue against her cheek and lowered her blue headband.

_But if this detective doesn't word things properly then we would have a problem._ She knew how someone could figure out a loophole from a person's words and could probably muck the results for them. The mother was someone that she did not think who had a problem, not with who she had as a father at the very least but the father was a different story entirely.

There was a slim possibility that he might have caused this to happen.

"I will go with your detective but can I have a talk with Detective Naomosa before he begins questioning them?" Naruto asked, smiling widely at the middle-aged man in front of her. The man blinked and raised a single eyebrow while the other officer rolled his eyes at her. "I wanna ask him if he could question them exactly like how I worded it. I don't wanna give them any excuse for keeping secrets from us."

Tanuma blinked and nodded his head while Naruto fixated her eyes on the haggard father in front of her.

_I really hope that his drinking problem started after the disappearance of his daughter and that he doesn't have a gambling problem, because it makes the whole thing even worse for his wife._

She exhaled and prayed to every god in existence that she was wrong about the man.

* * *

"_So I heard from Naruto that you told her that you didn't have a crush on anyone."_

Tamaki blinked and jerked his head up as Mirio slid into the empty seat right in front of him. A frown played on his lips while the indigo-haired boy rubbed either sides of his head. Great. The younger boy believed he had been lying to their friend about his feelings. If there were two people he could not lie to then it was Naruto and the boy right in front of him.

"I didn't lie to her and I told you the truth that I wasn't in love with Naruto," he declared. Tamaki kept his tone firm and locked eyes on the bento that his mother made for him, not allowing himself to look up at his friend. There was no need to look up if you asked him. The boy was probably going to give him a look of disbelief.

Ever since that day in the mall, Mirio believed he developed very strong romantic feelings for Naruto. _I know I act different around her but that didn't mean anything._ He exhaled and stared down at his food. Yeah, there were butterflies in his stomach whenever he was around the girl and maybe he could never stop looking at those sapphires that were her eyes but it was normal.

He always had that reaction around her.

"You have been crushing on Naruto since the moment she opened her eyes," Mirio observed. Tamaki froze and felt his heart raced a thousand miles as blue eyes sharpened. "You called her an angel when we found her near the alleyway and you get so flustered around her. None of the other girls make you react like she can."

Tamaki closed his eyes and put down his chopsticks. _None of the other girls have smiles like they are filled with sunshine or pretend to be confident when they have a lot of doubts about themselves._ The words were on the tip of his tongue but he swallowed it down like a pill. Just saying those words implied he was getting flustered at the accusation.

There was some truth behind the boy's words. Whenever Naruto was around, his palms did get sweaty and all he could focus on was her smile and the sparkle in her eyes. _It is just easy to get swept up by her._ She was like sunlight to his gloomy day. Someone who believed he could be an amazing hero despite the fact he easily doubted himself. Tamaki sighed and stared down at his rice.

"I might get flustered around Naruto but it doesn't mean I have a crush on her," Tamaki informed Mirio. He took a bite of his sausage and then another bite of his clams before looking back at his friend. "Anyone would get flustered around a pretty girl and Naruto also smells really good like roses! But that doesn't mean anything! N-Nejire also smells nice too."

Well he thought she would smell nice since Nejire liked spraying herself with perfume but he wasn't going to tell Mirio that. _If I did then it would prove his point._ Tamaki exhaled while the blond-haired boy raised a single eyebrow, not looking one bit convinced by the words coming out from his mouth. Great. Now he was going to be grilled even more.

A tray smacked onto the wooden table, forcing Tamaki to look away from Mirio and to focus on the smiling face of Nejire. _I-I'm not going to be having a peaceful break time, am I?_ He slumped his shoulders while the younger girl slid into the seat right beside the blond-haired boy. He knew from the smile and the giggle coming out of her mouth that they weren't going to be changing the topic anytime soon.

No one planned to give him mercy.

"I'm guessing from Tamaki's blushing cheeks that the topic is on Naruto-chan!" Nejire grinned and clasped her hands together while Mirio bobbed his head. The indigo-haired boy only raised an eyebrow at the nickname given to his first female friend. "Is Tamaki still in denial about his feelings towards Naruto-chan? Because it isn't nice to lie to yourself!"

The indigo-haired boy felt his cheeks burned before spluttering. "I'm not lying to m-myself."

"It is obvious to anyone with eyes that you have it bad for Naruto-chan," Nejire sang. The smile on her face widened as the indigo-haired boy forced himself to slide underneath his seat, hoping for the ground to swallow him up or for the two teens to give him mercy. If they were going to discuss about his feelings then he would have stayed at home. "I think the two of you will make such a cute couple! She is your complete opposite!"

_I know._ He pulled his collar up and looked down at his hands as the memory of Naruto's first day of school flashed before his eyes. Even though her lips wobbled slightly with anxiety, the girl smiled so widely and made being confident looked so easy. No one could do that when they were nervous but the whiskered girl could do it.

She made the idea of not being terrified of what people would think of you looked so easy and Tamaki wished he had that quality in himself.

"Even if I do have a crush on Naruto, I'm not her type," Tamaki said. Mirio raised an eyebrow while Nejire furrowed her eyebrows together. Why were they surprised? It was the truth. Someone as confident as Naruto deserved to be with someone who was as confident as her. That person could never be him. "She probably p-prefers confident guys and I'm not that type of guy. We are only friends anyway."

The words tasted slightly bitter in his mouth and he slumped his shoulders. The easy friendship he had with Naruto was good enough for him and he knew she would always be there to support him. _I'm happy with that._ He nodded. Not many people could claim to have a friendship like the one he had with the blond-haired girl.

"You and Naruto don't act like platonic friends," Nejire pointed out. Tamaki blinked and jumped up in his seat as periwrinkle-eyes looked at him with a knowing glint. "If I didn't know from Mirio then I would have believed the two of you were a couple. She really likes hugging you more than Mirio and Mirio is the better hugger."

Mirio coughed and flushed a light shade of pink while Nejire looked at him with a smile playing on her lips._ A couple?_ His cheeks burned an intense shade of red as images of him holding Naruto's hand flashed before his eyes. It was normal. This was not the first time he thought of being the one to hold her hand but that was normal.

Normal in the sense that Naruto really liked touching people.

"It doesn't mean anything," he cleared his throat and looked away from the frowning girl. "Naruto really likes being able to hug people and holding their hands too. Besides I think she likes seeing me flustered."

Nejire and Mirio exchanged glances. Tamaki could practically hear the silent conversation between those two as they kept flickering their eyes at him. It did not mean anything if Naruto lit up whenever he blushed around her or that the whiskered teen used to hug him. The tackle probably did not help but it was only because the blond-haired boy put him in the spot.

_The only benefit was that I had that sunshine of a smile directed at me._ His cheeks burned and his throat dried up as the memory of twinkling blue eyes came to his mind. That was a smile he always wanted to see from her and maybe it was selfish of him but he only wanted her to direct those smiles at him.

Those smile that made him think that he could do anything as long as he had her by his side.

"You always treated Naruto differently from everyone else," Mirio informed him. Tamaki kept quiet and looked down at his food while his best friend inspected him with knowing eyes. "You are always nervous but you get even more nervous around her. When she told you about that disastrous date she went on, you ranted about how the guy should have treated her better. That he should be lucky to go on a date with her."

There was nothing for him to say because what could he say? It would be lying if he claimed he didn't do that and he would be lying if he said he would do the same for Mirio. Whenever his best-friend got rejected or went on a bad date, they would play video-games and he would just listen to the boy prattle on about his bad luck.

Not once did he ever make a rant like he did with Naruto.

"I might treat her differently and even if you are right and I do like her…it doesn't change anything," Tamaki observed. Mirio knitted his eyebrows while Nejire frowned at him. He guessed the girl was probably figuring out what were going to be his next words. "But Naruto doesn't like me in that way. I'm just her male friend and nothing more to her."

He accepted that the girl would never look at him more than a friend to lean on whenever things got difficult for her. _I don't want anything more._ They were friends. Very good friends if you asked him but that was it. There was nothing romantic about their relationship and nothing could ever come out of it when Naruto would never look at him in that way.

"Well you can change that," Mirio grinned and Tamaki blinked before raising his eyebrow at his friend. The blond-haired boy coughed and rubbed the back of his neck as his blue eyes avoided looking at him. "Naruto is willing to go on a date with you so you can learn how to date a girl so I hope you brought your best clothes for tonight because this is going to be your chance to woo her."

Tamaki felt his heart dropped and his eyebrows twitched as he realized what his best friend had done.

"Tell me you didn't trick Naruto into going on a date with me!"

The whole canteen became deathly quiet as his voice boomed throughout the canteen. Tamaki squeaked and felt his cheeks burned an intense shade of red as his fellow students gawked at them. _I can't believe I did that! _He never raised his voice but the knowledge that the girl who only wanted to help him had been tricked made his blood boiled.

"I didn't trick her," Mirio corrected him once everyone turned away from them. "I'm giving you the chance to make Naruto see you as an option because you are too chicken to admit you are in love with her!"

That was even worse!

How the hell was he going to make Naruto see him as a potential love interest when he could barely look her in the eye?

* * *

**Author Note: What do you think of the pace of the relationship between Tamaki and Naruto? Do you think it is moving very quickly? And what do you think of the interactions between the characters? Please do tell me of your thoughts on this chapter.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Author Note: I would like to thank everyone who added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone who reviewed the last chapter.**

* * *

"_These are the questions that I want you to ask, Detective Naomosa and under no circumstances, can you change the wording unless the parents don't understand the meaning behind the question."_

Naruto handed the sheet of paper to the man and locked eyes with the parents. It had been two hours since the officer confirmed that the Public Safety Commission and the Commission General had given her permission to question the parents again. Not once did she allow any of the police officers to go in to talk them, reminding them of the need to observe them.

The mother had been getting very anxious throughout the two hours of isolation and kept calling the Police or the Hero in charge to tell her why there was a need for them to be here if they weren't going to tell her about the baby. It was understandable but the father's reaction was anxious and paled like he expected them to arrest him.

She could only wonder what the man had been doing to make him this anxious.

"You made a very long list of specific questions," Detective Naomosa commented. Naruto felt her lips twitched into a smile at the weariness and wonder in the man's tone like he couldn't believe she would think of these many questions. She found bubbles of laughter threatening to come out of her throat but the whiskered teen swallowed it down.

The blonde exhaled and clasped her hands together behind her head as her eyes fixated on the squirming parents sitting on the other side of the window. She twisted her legs together and leaned her body forward to the window, blue eyes lingering on the dark circles around the mother's eyes.

"Spouses can keep secrets from each other if they believe that the truth would ruin their marriage," Naruto explained, locking eyes on the red marks around the man's arms before flickering her eyes to the case file on the table. "If he has a gambling problem then someone would have taken the child because he hadn't paid his debt."

"There would have been a ransom note if that was the case," Detective Naomosa observed. His eyes inspected the man right in front of them before moving to the mother who kept fiddling with her hands. "His wife would have told us by now if they got a ransom note. He couldn't possibly care about his marriage more than his own child."

Naruto poked her tongue against her cheeks and looked up at the dangling light before looking back at the couple in front of her, observing the father and the guilt in his eyes before moving to the frantic mother.

"There is always a chance that this might not be the case that this is a result of him getting debts from the wrong people," Naruto reminded him. She licked her chapped lips and exhaled. "But we have to rule out the possibility that he had gambled with the wrong people and look at other possibilities. Quirk rings are possible but only if the baby has a confirmed Quirk."

She regarded the cat ears on the mother before moving to the dog tail on the father and then finally flickering her eyes at the Detective. The older male seemed to be intent on scanning through the list of questions. Naruto nodded and adjusted her orange forehead protector, lowering it down until it rested neatly above her eyebrows.

"What if this isn't the case of a Quirk Ring or a gambling debt?"

"Then we need to check all the people that they have been hanging around during the time that the mother was pregnant with her baby," Naruto replied. It was rare but she read a couple of books and watched some television series that delved into this topic. "There might be the case of some obsessive ex-boyfriend or girlfriend that we don't know about but even then…they hired amateurs kidnappers."

Detective Naomosa raised an eyebrow. "Amateur?"

"If you are going to stage a robbing gone wrong then the least they could do was take some of the valuables," she yawned and rubbed the back of her neck while the Detective gave her a look of disapproval. "We still need to find those kidnappers but it is going to be a difficult job to locate them when they hid their appearance with a mask and used some kind of device to disguise their voices."

Neither of the parents had a good look of the attackers but they did know that one of them could make some powerful lasers with his fingers. The other kidnapper only held a dagger or so the father informed the police. A sigh escaped her lips and Naruto took a sip of her coffee-flavored milk before looking back at the detective.

"None of the officers have been able to track down the kidnappers," Detective Naomosa observed with a grimace. Naruto nodded. She knew very well from the reports and the paperwork in the file that the Public Safety Commission had given her that no one came forward to offer any piece of information. She exhaled and took another sip of her milk, quietly understanding what the man was trying to imply to her.

"It might be difficult but it isn't impossible," Naruto declared. She kept her tone upbeat and offered the man a warm smile before walking back to the table that contained the file. "Nothing is impossible as long as all of us put the effort into finding their precious daughter. As long as there is a will, there is a way or so I have been told."

The man looked faintly amused at her words if that little smile playing on the man's lips told her anything. He stroke his chin and regarded her with thoughtful eyes before looking back at the parents.

"I will make sure to inform you which one of these questions that the parents stumbled or fail to answer truthfully," Detective Naomosa informed her. Naruto blinked as the man folded the list of questions into his beige coat pocket. "But I hope for everyone's sake that this is a simple case of the parents angering the wrong person and not something bigger."

Naruto nodded and stared at the tear-stricken mother. She felt a whole wave of sadness and concern washing over her while the man excused himself from the room. The world seemed to slow down as her hands reached out to clutch the table. The whole room was silent. There was no one for her to talk but she still felt the need to say it.

"I hope that it wasn't some sick, twisted person who stole the baby too."

It would be so cruel to the parents.

* * *

"Why are you having us questioned instead of being out there in the streets looking for the Villain that took our daughter!"

Naruto felt her eyebrow twitched as several drops of saliva smacked her whole face. The whole interrogation of the two parents took a lot longer than she expected because of the mother currently glaring at her like she was the woman who took her child away from her. She knew it should be understandable but she could feel her blood boiling up with irritation.

She forced herself to inhale and exhale before narrowing her eyes at the woman. Immediately the mother gulped and wilted like a dying flower before looking down at her trembling hands. Naruto poked her tongue against her cheek and inspected the two cups of hot milk she requested the police to make for them.

"If I'm going to rescue your baby girl, I need to know every _single_ fact because every fact can be a clue for the police and me to figure out the possible location of where the culprits could be."

The woman faltered with her lower lip trembling at her words. Naruto kept quiet, inhaling and exhaling while the father glared at her. The whiskered teen clenched her jaws together and folded her arms against her chest before fixating her eyes at the teary mother. Guilt began to crept up in her stomach and she lowered her head slightly.

Right, this was a frantic mother who was probably having the worst thoughts of what was happening to her baby girl. Mothers were very emotional beings or so she observed during her time in the Academy and playing alone in the playground in Konoha. This was normal. She exhaled and locked eyes with the woman.

"I am sorry for my harsh words," Naruto said, her voice was soft and she allowed her eyes to soften. "But for me and the police to do our best work, we need to look into everything. The police haven't been able to find any clues and while heroes are only needed to rescue, I want to do everything that I can to find your precious baby girl. I won't rest until I bring her back, believe it."

The mother looked at her for a good couple of seconds before relaxing her shoulders at the declaration coming out of her mouth. She could see the little bit of hopelessness fading away from the mother's eyes, replaced again with a strong dose of hope. Naruto exhaled and stared down at the notes that Detective Naomosa had given her.

"And what did our interrogation tell you?" The mother demanded.

Another grimace formed on her lips and the blond-haired hero slid two mugs of steaming hot milk to the parents. The parents raised their eyebrows at the gesture, looking absolutely befuddled with her action.

"Milk helps to calm down nerves," she explained gently with a little smile playing on her lips. The mother picked up the mug of milk and eyed her wearily, almost like she somehow knew of the results that were going to come out of her mouth. "I need the both of you to be calm when I tell you the results of your interrogation."

The mother took one huge gulp of the steaming hot milk before smashing the cup of milk onto the table. Naruto didn't flinch while the father gulped, looking ready to bolt away from the whole interrogation room. The whiskered teen flickered her eyes to the one-sided window before looking back at the fuming mother.

"I didn't lie to the Detective!" The mother growled.

Naruto poked her tongue against her cheek before biting down her tongue. Blood seeped out of her tongue, helping her in remembering that she shouldn't raise her temper at them. Heroes must be reasonable and the woman was hurting from the loss of her child. Another exhale and the blonde picked up another sip of her milk.

"You didn't lie," Naruto agreed, fixating her eyes on the husband and keeping her tone soft and calm. "But your husband wasn't being completely honest with the Detective."

Everything clicked. The blonde could see the woman paling and swirling her head at her husband, her mind trying to figure out which questions that her husband lied. The man only clenched his jaws together, eyebrow twitching before he finally punched the table at her statement.

"I didn't lie at all to that—"

"Do you know why the Police chose _that_ Detective and not anyone else?" Naruto asked, her voice was barely loud but it was enough to cause the man to shut up. The blonde put down her cup of milk and began to walk around the room. "Detective Naomosa has a very useful Quirk when it comes to interrogation. His Quirk allows him to act like a human lie detector."

The father of the missing child paled while the mother narrowed her eyes at her husband, hands clenched into a fist. Naruto pressed her lips into a thin line and grabbed the mother's fist. The mother froze, surprised as the blonde tightened her grip on the fist before lowering it down. The father shot her a look of gratitude. She only did it because the mother would regret it later.

Even though it _might_ be the husband's fault, Naruto didn't believe for one minute that violence was going to help either of them.

"You are upset and I understand that you want to throttle him for keeping secrets but you will regret it later," Naruto informed the mother. The woman furiously shook her head and glared at her husband. "Now why didn't you tell us that you have a gambling problem? Or that you owe some money to some _dangerous_ people?"

The wife clenched her jaws together and looked ready to claw her husband but the whiskered teen held her back. The woman tried to claw her way from her but Naruto only hugged the woman, stopping her from using those long nails to scratch her husband. Screams and promises of divorced echoed throughout the room as the blonde put the petite woman back into her chair.

"You promised me that you were going to stop!" The woman screeched. "Did you go _back there_? Dad told me that I was making a mistake by sticking with you but I thought—"

"—I didn't cause the debt through gambling!" The husband admitted. The mother blinked and slumped in her seat while Naruto raised a single eyebrow at the man. The male exhaled and trembled as a single tear ran down his eyes. "I stayed out of that place after we got married but work hasn't been great and your father refused to help us."

"You borrowed some money from some loan sharks to make sure you can provide for them right?"

The man bobbed his head, body trembling, and looked at the teary-eyed mother. Naruto kept quiet, blue eyes softening slightly as she took a seat on the chair. It was so easy for her to understand the man's desire to provide for his family. Everything was so expensive and having a child just added to the expenses. She relaxed and looked at the trembling parents.

"I could have talk to my father," the mother muttered. "I could have pleaded with him if you were struggling with work. I could have brought little Taka with me and he would have been more willing to listen."

The husband rolled his eyes. "He refused to acknowledge me and our son because I didn't have a high-paying job like him!"

Naruto pinched her nose and flickered her eyes between the couple. The woman kept shaking her head, muttering something under her breath about her father while the man kept looking down at his feet. She had an unexpected urge to pat both of them on their head. Not having the support of family was difficult and the idea that love could make everything better was a wrong idea.

The couple in front of her was proof of it.

"We need the names of those loan sharks so that the police could question them," she finally said, keeping her tone calm and locking eyes with the trembling husband. The mother dug her nail against the palm of her hand, looking ready to cry again at the reminder of what the husband had done.

The father nodded and locked eyes with her. "Do you really think they took our baby girl?"

Naruto bit her lips and regarded the two parents. Hope shone through his eyes while the mother eyed her, head tilted to the side like she was deeply curious to know what her thoughts were. It was completely obvious to her and maybe even the police that her answer could make or break the marriage of the couple in front of her.

"We can't rule them out but there is a chance that they aren't involved if we don't have a ransom note," Naruto replied softly and gently to the couple. "But you should have come forward with this piece of information."

The wife nodded and pressed her lips into a thin line before fixating her eyes on her husband.

"You better hope for the sake of our marriage that it isn't the loan sharks that took our daughter because our marriage is over if our daughter isn't healthy or alive."

Well that felt like more pressure for her.

* * *

"_So I heard the Public Safety Commission gave you a very public case as your debut mission."_

Naruto blinked and jumped up at the sound of wings flapping from behind her. She twisted her whole body around and relaxed her shoulders at the smiling face of her senior. The people around them kept glancing at them, looking ready to go and dash straight to them but having some kind of sense that this was not the time to be asking for photograph.

She couldn't blame them because her senpai ranked number three in the billboards.

"How do you know about my first mission, Hawks?" She asked, raising a single eyebrow at him. Hawks offered her a lazy smile but his eyes glinted with arrogance like he would never tell her of how he knew about her first mission. Naruto only scowled at the man and folded her arms against her orange bodysuit.

Her senior only chuckled and regarded her with thoughtful eyes. No words were spoken between them as the conversations of pedestrians filled the whole streets. She could see some of the girls taking photographs of them, eyes eager with curiosity of the potential gossip. Naruto wrinkled her nose and lowered her forehead protector.

"People like to talk," he replied, quirking his lips into a smirk. "And from what I heard _they_ gave you a very difficult case to do: rescuing a baby that no one knows the whereabouts."

Naruto thinned her lips at the reminder while her senior continued to regard her with curious eyes. She should feel a bubble of annoyance over the reminder but the lazy smile on Hawks' face made it difficult. From the moment she entered the program, the man had been a constant presence and helped her when she struggled with ordinary school work.

Hawks continued to observe her as some of the police officers waved their goodbyes to her. Naruto waved her hand at them, smiling widely before looking back at her silent senior. Even though no words were spoken between them, she knew he wanted her to say something to him.

"I'm going to rescue her," she declared, smiling she clenched her hands into a fist. Naruto fixated her eyes at Hawks and turned her smile into a smirk. "Even if that case might have little to no clues, I will find that baby girl and return her back to her family. I'm going to capture the people who took the daughter away or my name isn't Uzumaki Naruto."

Hawks hummed. "You know you should be going as your hero name, Sacral."

"I'm not going to forget my origins," she retorted, rolling her eyes at her senior. The blond-haired man did not smile at the comment, only flickering his eyes around the scene before looking back at her. Those red wings tickled her, almost tempting her to sneeze but the blonde held back. "_They_ might want me to forget my name and my existence but I won't do it, senpai."

_Not like you._

She clasped her hands behind her back as the smile on Hawks face faltered slightly. A bitter and envy smile touched his face, and the whiskered teen wondered not for the first time why he was so willing to do what the system wanted when he hated it as much as she did.

"How do you plan to rescue a missing baby when there are no clues on where she can be, my adorable junior?" Hawks asked with a bit of curiosity behind his tone. He stretched his arms slightly and folded his arms against his chest, leaning against his right foot as his eyes inspected her.

Naruto only hummed and rolled her eyes at the dreaded nickname Hawks bestowed on her when the Public Safety Commission put him in charge of taking care of her. She cracked her knuckles, blue eyes shifting to the various pedesterians who were scurrying towards the train station.

She better hurry up too if she wanted to meet Tamaki for his date training.

"Villains and brokers are never willing to talk to heroes but give them a pretty woman or a handsome man and they will spill their darkest secrets," Naruto commented with a sly smile. Amusement and disdain leaked out of her tone as her eyes flickered to the police officers. Even though the police were going to question the loan sharks, she still needed to find another potential kidnapper.

It was no coincidence that a baby was stolen instead of her Quirk-wielding brother.

"You are going to go undercover."

No surprise came out of his tone as Hawks regarded her with careful but amused eyes. He flickered his eyes from her costume to the birds soaring through the evening sky. She could only imagine what was going through her senior's mind because even though it had been five years since they met, Naruto couldn't read him very well.

"We need to look at every possibility and brokers are known for smuggling things and people while those kidnappers are now considered villains for using their Quirk illegally," Naruto observed. Hawks curled his lips into a faint smile, looking almost amused at her observation.

She clicked her teeth together and stared at the smiling couple pushing the stroller away. There were many possibilities of what could be happening to the baby but an idea came to her mind at the sight of the smiling mother. Miscarriage was a difficult thing for any woman to feel and could make some women do insane things to get a child. Naruto grimaced.

"_They_ will be over the moon if you can solve it and get a couple of villains to unwillingly spill such information," Hawks commented. The hum and smile coming out of the man brought a little grimace from the whiskered teen as her eyes locked onto the passing train entering the train station ahead of them. "They might have the media eating you up."

The grimace on her face deepened at the reminder as her hand reached out to touch the black forehead protector on her forehead. Her hand traced the lotus flower on the protector before looking up at the evening sky. The Media. When she first entered this world, she had been so eager for attention but the more she learnt being a hero and the work she would do…the more her stomach curled up with disgust.

Heroes weren't supposed to be such big celebrities not with the work they do.

"I don't care about rankings or the media," Naruto informed him stiffly. She tightened the forehead protector while Hawks only shrugged and placed his hand on top of her shoulder, squeezing it slightly as if to warn her about her line of thinking. The whiskered teen grimaced. "They don't matter to me as much as doing my job well and getting that girl back to her parents."

Hawks chuckle startled her, making her jump up slightly at the laugh, and the whiskered teen rolled her eyes. She could guess her senior believed she was being a naïve hero again if that little smile playing on his lips told her. Naruto dipped her head down and trying to swallow back the irritation that threatened to come out.

"You are still so easy to rile up, Sacral," Hawks commented. Naruto jerked her head up and scowled when the man offered her a smile before pinching her cheeks. She rubbed her cheeks and narrowed her eyes at the smiling man. The smile on his face widened as he held his hand up at her. "C'mon I will make it up to you by buying you some ramen."

Naruto felt a smile threatened to come out of her lips and was ready to jump up on the offer, only to stop when a pair of nervous eyes came to her mind. She chuckled and shook her head. A part of her might be tempted to take him up on the offer but a huge part of her screamed to reject the offer because Tamaki needed her help.

That her ramen could wait.

"I have got plans so I'm going to take a rain check on that offer."

A stunned silence fell between them as Hawks gawked at her. Naruto only offered him a cheeky smile as her eyes fixated on the speeding train. The wind tickled her hair, blowing it up in the wind while the man continued to look wide-eyed. She knew what surprised him. It was not like her to turn down the offer of free ramen.

"You are abandoning my offer of free ramen for plans?"

Hawks looked stumped, eyebrows raised up to his hairline and Naruto smiled even wider. She bounced up and down in her spot as flustered cheeks and nervous indigo eyes flashed before her mind. It was getting easier for her to abandon her senpai's offer for free ramen. Her friend needed help when it came to girls and she was the only girl that probably had no problem with Tamaki's shyness.

"I'm meeting a friend!"

Hawks tilted his head and the smile on his lips became a little bit wider as his eyes gleamed with amusement.

"A meeting with a friend? Or are you going on a date?"

Naruto jerked her head, spluttered and then stumbled slightly at the sudden question. The question rattled her slightly as images of her holding Tamaki's hand came to her mind. She could feel her cheeks burning a bright shade of red and there was an intense desire for her to poke her fingers together. The older male leaned forward, looking way too eager to know the answer to the question.

After taking a deep breath, the blonde rubbed the back of her neck and considered carefully of how to answer his question.

"It is both."

She was going to have some fun teasing and teaching Tamaki in their not-really a date tonight.

* * *

**A/N: So there is a little bit of build-up on the case and Hawks makes an appearance. Do tell me of what you thought about the interaction between the characters and your thoughts on what Naruto plans to do to get information.**


End file.
